Demonic Peacekeeper
by Bismarck Alexander
Summary: The Japanese navy discovered a large continent in the Pacific that seemed to appear out of nowhere. The land has a surprise, its inhabited by humans and demons. Their king is a demon that values Peace. He goes to Japan to sign a treaty, and meet the one called Kenshin Himura. Takes place right after the series,
1. Chapter 1

**MY FIRST RUROUNI KENSHIN FANFIC. OKAY SO THIS KING OF THE DEMONS GOES TO JAPAN TO SIGN A PEACE TREATY TO PUT AN END TO ANY MORE SKIRMISHES WITH THE JAPANESE. KENSHIN AND HIS FRIENDS ARE INVITED TO A PALACE WHERE A BALL WILL BE TAKING PLACE. SINCE THE KING IS INTERESTED IN MEETING THE SWORDSMAN OF LEGEND. **

**Adventure, Horror, Humor, Friendship, Supernatural, and Romance are all the MAIN genres in this story.**

**There is 60-70 percent chance that the rating will change To be Rated M for blood and Lemons.**

**Had to delete chapter 1 for now until further notice.**

**BY THE WAY I DO NOT OWN RUROUNI KENSHIN, OR SAMURAI X. WHAT I DO OWN ARE THE NUMEROUS OCS IN MY STORY, A FEW OF WHICH RE-RE-CREATED. i will explain that later. So to prolong your torture. The demon race is somewhat inspired by a mixture of my imagination and with the Cobra organization from GI JOE VS COBRA.**

**EXPLAIN LATER.**

**READ AND REVIEW.**

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Kaoru woke up in the mid-morning hours of September 6, 1878 with a smile on her face, predicting another crazy yet peaceful day at the dojo. Kaoru rose from her futon, as she put her hand up to her mouth while letting out a silent yawn and stretched a bit to remove the kinks in her joints and muscles. She stood up lightly rubbing her eyes and walked over to her dresser and pulled out her training gi and hakama for later and a yellow kimono for the day and a pink ribbon. (You should all know this kimono, she commonly wore, first appeared in episode 2)

Kaoru dressed up in her yellow kimono quietly, so not to disturb her three female roommates: Misao, Omasu, and Ochika. Especially since Misao was happily dreaming about Aoshi, while Ochika dreamt about Kenshin's master Seijuro Hiko. Kaoru smiled softly in understanding, since she herself regularly dreamt about Kenshin, ever since she fell in love with him. She unconsciously watched them as they had their romantic dreams, while slowly tying her obi. Kaoru's soft smile turned into a sad a frown as she reminded herself about the current pace her relationship with Kenshin, as if there was any pace at all, was going at.

Kaoru slid open her shoji and stepped out of her room, and closed it behind her. She let out a quite sigh of uncertainty, and leaned against the shoji as she stared up into the beautiful blue sky.

"Six months going onto seven months next week of living together, yet were still so far apart." She whispered to herself with minor sadness. Kaoru clearly remembered of thinking the same thing a week ago. (watch episode 95)

Kaoru also clearly remembered the numerous events and incidents that have taken place this past month, starting in the last few days of July: The Tanabata day-wedding ring fiasco (watch episode 66), Shogo Amakusa, Fake Battousai that had a crossed shape scar on his left _arm_ (episode 77), Hokane springs (watch episode 78, and you're gonna be in a world of surprise and awkward pity), Yutaro and the Black Knights from Germany, etc. In her train of thought, Kaoru's mind sneaked its way back onto the dream subject.

(A/N: I was mentioning some of the fillers from season 3)

"I wonder if... Does Kenshin ever even dreams about me? Or about us?" Kaoru gasped, covering her mouth with the tips of her fingers, as a streak of red appeared across her face, when she realized that was a little bit louder than what she planned on.

But that question did bring up an interesting topic that was full of good, yet random, questions about him like:

How did he get that scar

What was his reason, or reasons, for staying here?

Did he know how she felt about him?

Did he feel the same way?

"Thinking about the Battousai?" Asked a familiar emotionless low pitched masculine voice.

Kaoru's eyes bugged out of her head and she nearly fell over, realizing that she was caught red handed. She shifted her eyes down the partially outdoor hallway to her right and the saw leader of the Owniwanbanshu, Aoshi Shinomori, sitting cross-legged on the wooden engawa in front of the shoji that lead to Kenshin's room, where he spent the night with Yahiko and supposedly Kenshin. Aoshi was happened to be wearing a beige yukata.

"Good morning Aoshi." She sighed in defeat.

"Good morning to you too Miss Kaoru." He returned her greeting as he stood up and bowed to his hostess.

"So how long how have you been up?" She asked not looking at him.

"Hmmm... since past five." He answered also not looking at her.

Embarrassment flooded her cheeks, knowing he heard her most recent question she asked herself.

"I apologize for interrupting your thoughts about the Battousai and your... disappointment of the current status of your relationship with him." He quietly stated with a hint of sympathy.

The young female regained her posture as she heard Aoshi's observation of her being lost in deep thought. She was tempted to smile and say, 'I don't know what you're talking about Aoshi' or 'I'm not unhappy with my relationship with Kenshin.' But she knew couldn't lie about her feelings for Kenshin, no matter how hard she tried to tell people that knew her otherwise. Especially to Aoshi Shinomori, but she tried to lie anyway.

"There's no need to hide or correct in anyway your feelings for him Miss Kaoru." The male ninja said as if he just read her mind before sitting back down in a cross legged position.

Kaoru sighed. He easily saw through her lie. She figured it was best to come clean about it finally, "Kenshin and I are just good friends. And yes I do want to be in a... romantic," She said romantic quickly, "relationship. But while everybody else can see that my feelings for Kenshin are strong, Kenshin himself doesn't seem to acknowledge or see any hints that I want to be more than just friends. Thats probably because he thinks that I just want to be friends with him." She said as her sad sapphire eyes looked to the ground.

"That's where you _might_ be wrong, Miss Kaoru." He slowly declared.

Kaoru looked up at him with hopeful yet nervous eyes as if had some sort of revelation about Kenshin and Kaoru's future.

"Kenshin Himura the _wanderer_ may not seem to notice your feelings for him, at least the romantic feelings, as much on a regular basis, either whenever you want him to notice your feelings for him, or whenever you show it through your actions, such as shedding tears for him, tending to his injuries, fearing for his safety and his life, and waiting for him at the dojo gates to return when he's late getting back home from an errand. But Himura the Battousai, there is good chance that he probably acknowledges your feelings, however the wanderer is used as a mask and a shield, to keep Battou-."_  
_

Aoshi was interrupted when he heard a low a growling sound realized where it was coming from. Kaoru heard it too but couldn't pinpoint its location.

"You're hungry." He stated.

Kaoru sweat dropped and swore to herself under her breath.

"We'll continue this talk later Miss Kaoru." He said as he stood up. Kaoru sighed disappointedly an okay in response.

"For now I shall make breakfast." He offered as he started walking to the kitchen.

She snapped out of her embarrassment, "Oh is Kenshin still sleeping? Since he normally makes breakfast at this time."

"No. In fact he didn't enter his room last night."

"What!? Where could he be?" She asked with concern building up.

"Hmmmm... I think I know where." Aoshi thought out loud.

Few minutes later they found him in the kitchen... sleeping, in a sitting position up against the wall next to the sink, while his right hand held sword. A sweat drop formed on the back of Kaoru's head s's she stood hunched over at least three feet away from him. Aoshi stood in the middle of the kitchen with his eyes closed, as if he were in a trance.

"I knew it. I knew he would he fall asleep doing the dishes if he did them late at night. I told him to leave them and I would do them in the morning." She said as her irritation started to grow.

"Well... yes it was... unwise," He agreed, "to start a household chore less than two hours before midnight."

"My point exactly."

"However he did eat quite a lot as a compliment in regards of you cooking a delicous meal," He countered, "and thought that doing the dishes would be a proper reward."

Kaoru's irritation grew even more, "I know its in his character, but sti-."

Kaoru was interrupted by a strange noise, but it wasn't her stomach this time, but instead sounded like a... hissing noice... coming from Kenshin.

Aoshi and Kaoru refocused their attention on the man before them. Sweat started to form on Kenshin's face as he began to flinch erratically while making very quite yet strange noises.

Hiss. Hiss. Hiss.

"Is he dreaming?" Kaoru asked quietly.

Aoshi didn't respond, he just stood looking at him with a blank expression on his face.

Hiss.

"Is he dreaming about-."

"Peace." He made a barely audible whisper. Confusion started brewing in the girls head.

Hiss.

After about a minute, Kaoru's growing confusion was replaced by a slow but sure growth of concern for the man that she deeply cared about. Kenshin flinching was added on by wincing as his face became even sweatier, while he made silent hisses.

Kaoru started to worry that he might be having a dream about Kyoto. She lowered herself to the floor and sat straight up on her legs in front of him. Ready to wake him and provide comfort if it appears to get...

"Peace is impossible to achieve." He whispered calmly as he switched back to showing signs of fear and struggle on his face, while lightly gritting his teeth.

Kaoru placed her hand on his scarred cheek hoping to calm him down, but it didn't. She tried calling out to to him, "Kenshin," She whispered, "Kenshin if you can here me, wake up. Please wake up. You're not in Kyoto, you're living in Tokyo. The revolution is over. You're not Battousai anymore!"

"Peace is... flower... corrupt... hands of ignorance!" He lightly shouted in a staggered manner.

Hiss.

Kenshin's breathing started to become slightly more rapid, Kaoru didn't take that as a good sign. Aoshi stood in the same spot as he fixed his gaze with great curiosity and interest at his former adversary.

_'I doubt he's dreaming about Kyoto.'_ He thought.

"Idea of... long peace... ruling... reality renouncing... power oppression."

Hiss. Hiss.

Kaoru felt confusion and worry battle within her, as she struggled to understand what Kenshin was saying... or rather dreaming about. Aoshi on the other hand was confused, yet deeply interested in what was going through Kenshin's head at the moment.

"Peace... desireable and achievable... sought by... determined to protect... costs them lives."

"Kenshin I don't what you're dreaming about, but whoever you're fighting doesn't exist. So just wake up! Kenshin!" She fearfully demanded as she shook him little by his shoulders.

Hiss.

"Kenshin please hear my voice!" She demanded, yet calmly this time, as she placed a hand on both sides of his face.

"Protect... peace... protect country... protect someone... you love."

Kaoru froze and blushed upon hearing those last four words. Aoshi raised an eyebrow and finally decided to speak, "Now I'm really interested in what he's dreaming about."

Kaoru didn't know what to say, think, or do now. She was still blushing, and she was unsure if that was meant for her.

"Peace... human race."

"Kenshin?" She asked scooting closer to him and lowering her hands to shoulders.

"Peace for the human... and demon race."

Aoshi raised both eyebrows after hearing that last statement, he was curios to what this man was dreaming about. Kaoru only stared at him with perplexity on her face, wondering what kind of a dream he was having, she noticed that in his sleeping state, his small thrashings, flinchings, and random reflexes had recided, and his breathing returned to normal, all sounds from Kenshin, except for his breathing, died. The room fell silent.

Kaoru could only breathe a sigh of relief, thinking whatever disturbing dream he had was over, _'Kenshin. I don't what you were dreaming about, but I want to know. I want you to tell me, so I can be there and provide you comfort if was that bad. I just only hope it wasn't-.'_

HISS!_  
_

Kaoru's thoughts were interrupted by Kenshin going back to his strange hissing, only louder and with a little bit more malice. She noticed he had a panicked look on his face and started shaking his sword.

HISS! HISS!

Kaoru's fears came back in full force, she struggled to calm herself as she pleaded to him, "Kenshin! Kenshin! Wake up! Wake up Kenshin!" She began shaking him by the shoulders hoping it would help her in waking Kenshin up from a dream that appeared to go really bad.

"KENSHIN!" She called out in fear.

~INSIDE KENSHIN'S MIND~

HISS! HISS!

Kenshin was paralyezd in fear, as his eyes and face were filled with horror at the sight of his bloodless sword has taken on a life of its own in the ugliest manner.

Without warning, it used god like speed, shooting up at Kenshin ready to sink its venomous fangs into his face until...

"KENSHIN!" A familiar female voice called out.

All of a sudden the snake stopped millimeters away from its target, while the darkness flashed into a blinding light.

~REALITY~

Kenshin's eyes flew open as he shot forward, but was stopped by for some reason and was somewhat restrained. His breathing was slightly rapid and shallow, his face and gi were a little moist from the cold sweat his body produced at some point.

"Kenshin?" The familiar female voice spoke again.

Upon hearing the voice, Kenshin managed to almost get his brewthing under control and slowly became aware of his surroundings. He blinked a couple of times and saw Kaoru, the woman who recreated his sole, sitting before him, with eyes filled with worry.

"M-miss Kaoru?"

"Shhh. Its alright Kenshin. It was only a bad dream, you're not in Kyoto." Kaoru said as she wrapped her arms around his neck, and comforted him like a mother would do for her child.

"Oro?" Kenshin was confused, "Kyoto? I wasn't dreaming about the revolution! That I wasn't!" He tried to explain.

"I guess my reasons for doubting that were correct." Interjected Aoshi

"Kenshin," Kaoru began as she pulled herself away from the redhead, "if you weren't dreaming about the revolution, yet you still had a bad dream, would you be willing to talk about it later?" She asked as she stared at him with hopeful eyes.

Kenshin flashed her with one of his rurouni smiles, "Of course Miss Kaoru. I can't keep secrets from you. That I can't."

"Really? Thats sweet of you to say that, even though you do!" She said through her teeth in a irritated tone as a small yellow vein pulsates a few times off of her head.

Kenshin sweat dropped and raised his hands as he tried to clarify that 'secret keeping habit' he has, "W-well I kinda have t-to k-keep secrets sometimes if-if-if it complicates your safety! Same goes for Yahiko! That it does." Kenshin nervously said as he struggled keeping his rurouni smile.

Kaoru lightly growled in response, indicating she didn't like that answer.

"I'll just leave the room and make breakfast outside." Aoshi declared grabbing a few things in order to execute the task, before exiting the kitchen, leaving the swordsman of legends to his impending fate.

"ORO!? Uhh... i-if you want Miss Kaoru, starting today I can be a little m-m-more open about myself! That I can...WILL!

"Really?" Kaoru eyes turned glassy circular orbs that held two shining stars

"Oh Kenshin thank you!" She hugged him by his neck again.

"Oro?"

Kenshin sensed that someone familiar was in the room. He looked past Kaoru, and sure enough, Hajime Saito was standing on the other side of the kitchen. Sanosuke told everyone he died in the flames at Mt. Hiei, but knowing Saito, he must've escaped. Kenshin scowled at him and guessed he was here for a fight. However Kenshin didn't sense an immediate threat from him, but was still

"Hello Saito. Can I help you with something?" He asked struggling to use a polite tone.

Kaoru froze for a second after the mere mentioning of Saito's name, she quickly pulled back and turned halfway around, still crouching, and shot glaring daggers from her eyes at the most despicable man, in her book, who was suppose to be dead.

"Uhhh... I'm not interrupting anything am I?" He asked with a surprised look on his wolf-like face with a cigarette barely hanging from his mouth.

"Oro?"

The pair took immediate notice at the fact, that _one _of them, was straddling the other by their legs. You can guess which is which.

The two using god like speed stood up with embarrassment on their faces.

"No no no no! No Saito you weren't interrupting anything! That you weren't! Because nothing was going between us! That there wasn't!" Kenshin tried to explain.

"Just keep it in the bedroom next time Himura." He said blowing smoke from his cigarette.

"We will." He said.

Kenshin's eyes bugged out, realizing what he just walked into.

"ORO!? WE DIDN'T DO ANYTH..."

"What do you want Saito? What are you doing here?" Kaoru asked in a demanding tone, trying to steer away from the embarrassing incident.

"We'll discuss that during breakfast." He simply said walking out of the room. He stopped outside the exit and said something that surprised them, "Its about the demon race."

Just then Sanosuke's voice called, "SAITO I KNOW YOU'RE HERE! COME ON OUT SO WE CAN SETTLE THE SCORE!"

Saito, Kaoru, and Kenshin all sweat dropped at Sano's foolish demands.

"Orooooo. Sano."

Breakfast was slightly awkward at first due to the tensions created by Sano, over Saito's unwanted presence, and by Misao's attempts to win Aoshi's attention. Everyone ate outside, since Aoshi prepared the meal there.

"So Saito... what is this demon race you wanted to talk with me about?" Kenshin asked with a serious face.

Everyone, except for Aoshi and Kaoru, went silent after hearing what they thought was a random question.

Saito ceased eating his plain soba and looked at him.

"Well to start off, a couple months ago the Japanese Navy found a continent, that mysteriously appeared out of nowhere know in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, full of them... not just demons but humans too. Several skirmishes followed after, those demons can fight. So their king, Ebenezer Forrgon, is coming to Tokyo to sign a treaty next week. Yamagata is coming over with someone, to tell you the rest." He finished before drinking his tea.

"Oh... okay..." Kenshin said before sipping his tea.

"But what does that have to do with Kenshin? Act as security?" Sano asked suspiciously.

"That and their king wants to meet him."

Kenshin nearly choked on his tea after hearing Saito's last response. Everyone else gasped and stared with wide eyes at each other.

Just then a carriage pulled up the dojo gates, and out stepped Yamagata, following was a short, western style brown colored dressed... blue skin colored... creature.

"Good morning Mr. Yamagata." Kenshin said as he and the others bowed.

"And to you too Himura," He bowed in return, "I'm amusing your friend Saito mentioned something unusual."

Kenshin slowly nodded.

"Well let me introduce you to royal emissary, Mr. Kragas Varrooshka."

"That's certainly a strange name, that it is."

He gestured to the blue demon. Everyone turned to the small monster.

He or it.. Was rather skinny, his head looked like a blue skull, with horns sticking out from the sides. His eyes were red glowing bulges, similar to that of an insect. He had five sharp teeth sticking out from the upper part of mouth. Kragas, who was in a hunched posture, slowly looked up at them.

"Ekkota." The creature said in some foreign language with a slow, raspy voice.

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CLIFFHANGER. Finally I got this one done.


	2. Chapter 2

**THIRD CHAPTER OF DEMONIC PEACEKEEPER. This chapter is lenghty I'll admit, but I like to fit everything I can into one chapter, thereby eliminating other chapters that prolong the torture of the coming of the good chapters. You know I'll let you read and review.**

**I DON'T OWN RUROUNI KENSHIN.**

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"Ahem..." Kaoru cleared her throat before giving out a polite invitation, "Mr. Aritomo, would you and... Mr. Kragas, care to sit down with us?"

"Thank you." Yamagata bowed before he and the monster took a seat next to Saitou.

Kaoru sat back down next to Kenshin on his right. As Aoshi offered the two new guests some refreshments which they declined respectfully, Kaoru secretly and somewhat unconsciously grabbed the back of Kenshin's sleeve out of mild concern for him.

Kenshin and the others stared at this scrawny creature with wide eyes. Some like Sano stared at it with mild fear and traditional paranoia. Aoshi only gazed at it with no feeling.

"Ekkota (eh-koe-tah) katiohorah, koota sorka Himura... Battousai." Kragas said raising his arms as though he was praying to the red haired swordsman. Kenshin's eyes widened even more at the monster before him who mentioned his former alias, but he didnt know how that could be possible, after all Yamagata said he was a foreign diplomat.

"Oppoeroe asago tookara nazhüdul. Forroudö skwordas Kringas Ebenezer Forrgon. Kringas O' sorka Continenten O' Krêta-Dräko-Demonäria, coüntryener O' Cobreiny, ønd O' Demons." Varrooschka slowly said in his mild rasp.

Kenshin and his friends stared at the nicely dressed creature standing before them that was speaking. But somehow their attention was caught entirely when he said, 'Demons.'

"In translation he said, Peace be with you Himura the Battousai. Straight from the words of king Ebenezer Forrgon. King of the continent of Krêta-Dräko-Demonäria, or Cobria for short, the country of Cobreiny (co-breh-ni) (A/N: the reni is like rony in IRONY, only without the I, now say it) and the demon race." Yamagata said.

"You understand his strange language?" Kenshin asked.

"Well only what I know from the Latin interpretation. He speaks Latin as a second language, and so do I. However he seems to understand our language, but he doesn't speak it for some reason."

"Latin? Isn't that a language primarily used by the Catholic Church in Europe? Just how would he know a European language?" Aoshi asked raising an eyebrow.

"This may surprise you Mr. Shinomori, all of you," Yamagata began, "They're everywhere."

"W-w-what do you mean by everywhere?" A fearful Sano asked turning blue.

"He means they're all over the world you moron." Saito said nonchalantly.

THUD. Sanosuke fainted.

Everyone, except for Yamagata and Kragas, all sweat dropped at the now fainted, swirly eyed, former fighter for higher.

"Wait a minute," Kaoru interjected snapping out of her trance, "if they're all over the world... that would mean... there are demons living in Japan." She stated.

"Correct Miss Kamiya. With about 2000 living in Tokyo." Yamagata added.

Foam started to bubble up from Sano's mouth after subconsciously hearing that small number, but no one seemed to notice.

"The news of this discovery have been spreading around like wildfire over Japan since yesterday when it was finally released to the public." Saitou stated.

"How is that possible? Wouldn't somebody notice any strange creatures running around long before?" Ochika asked in astonishment.

"Yuppa eetoy lœwet šaarło rasaryërtii hiesse werta numiliesch ukhai urufuta kaultos-hera gyûøk dæg hijöpor." Kragas threw out waving his right clawed hand.

"Oro?"

POP POP POP POP POP POP...

Question marks appeared around the residents' heads wondering what he said, including Sanosuke who spontaneously regained conscious after hearing the demon's language.

"He said that majority of demons are born with a permanent human look, fully or partially, if they're from a specified culture or tribe." The defense minister translated.

"Specified culture or tribe?" Sano asked standing up.

"My apologies Mr. Yamagata, but we should get to the point of this meeting, for we have another to attend to." Saitou interrupted as he checked his watch before finishing his light meal.

"We'll I do... but you don't." He pointed out.

"What?" He asked in his polite Fujita tone.

"Tokio has requested for you to have a two weeks vacation, starting today. Which excludes you from all meetings. You should request this more often, so you can spend more time with her."

"You know Saitou he's right," Kenshin agreed, "you have other duties outside of work that you need to fulfill, that you do."

"Yeah that's right!" Misao cheerfully agreed.

"Who's Tokio?" Kaoru asked.

"My wife." He struggled to say with a half groaning mumble.

ANIME STYLE EXPLOSION.

"Since when did you have a wife!?" Yahiko, Kaoru, and Sano yelled simultaneously in utter shock and disbelief.

"Hmmm... well we met around the end of the battle at Toba-Fushima, three years later we were engaged and two years later we married. Sooo five years." He calmly said as he recollected his memories.

"Kenshin and Misao how long have you guys known about this?!" Sano and Kaoru asked.

"After first meeting Makoto Shishio." Kenshin said.

"Hootkasdar gyos ryuupos tyul Makato Shishio trutöff önd bättęr swardef O' Toba-Fushima?" (_Who is this Makoto Shishio and this battle of Toba-Fushima) _Kragas asked looking up at Yamagata.

"We'll talk about that later." Yamagata replied.

"Man forget about demons being scary. I find that a woman being your wife as the most scariest thing ever." Sano said aloud.

"So this was an originally arranged marriage?" Kaoru asked with beady eyes.

Saitou gave off a cocky smirk, "Nope I asked her out of love."

"I find that hard to believe a woman would love and marry a guy like you, let alone you love somebody!" Yahiko coldly said.

"I actually can say the same thing about you when it comes to that Tsubame girl." He coldly, yet cleverly retorted.

"What was that?!" Yahiko shot him blank, pointy angry eyes as he struggled to keep his cheeks from showing any embarrassment.

"Same goes for the fox and the idiot street fighter here. You guys are in a relationship right?"

"Ehh. Depends on how you look at it." Sano said giving his half-admitted reply while shaking his right as a so-and-so gesture.

"And don't get me started about the _compromising position _I caught the Battousai and raccoon girl-"

"SAITOU! ME AND MISS KAORU WEREN'T DOING ANYTHING!" Kenshin yelled as he and Kaoru blushed furiously.

"Himura, you and Kaoru were in the act!?" Misao asked with wide eyes.

"We've been waiting for something like that to happen." Sanosuke stated with his eyes closed, scowling as if he really didn't care.

"Himura I'm surprised to hear this about you. I had been under the assumption that you were courting Miss Kaoru, but I didn't know you were a man to move that fast." Yamagata said.

"ORO!?

Saitou smirked at his little torture he was giving Kenshin, "Oh yeah she was straddling him, while he had his back against the wall-"

"Nothing happened between them." Aoshi interrupted still tending to the cooking of breakfast.

"Thank you Aoshi." Kenshin sighed and bowed gracefully to the man who ended his embarrassing torture from the Wolf of Mibu.

"Ehhh... yaaror tyuop kilopyor poylas metœû byarøp hükpæg?"

"I agree Mr. Kragas, we should continue this meeting." Yamagata translated.

"Oro? We're sorry Mr. Kragas, that we are." Kenshin apologized.

"So Aritomo," Kaoru began, "this king of the demons, what is he like?"

"I haven't met him personally. But I heard that when he was a prince he was a powerful and mighty warrior, now he's a king who values one thing the most... and that is peace."

Kenshin smiled warmly upon hearing this king's values of peace. He too valued peace the most, for he fought 4-5 years for it as a manslayer and another 10 years for it as a wanderer.

"Which probably explains the massive, highly trained and disciplined armed forces he's commanding that we became acquainted with." Saitou said, somewhat sarcastically.

Kenshin snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Saitou bring up a militaristic subject regarding the king and the people that he leads.

"Hmmm... Well 2nd Lieutenant Cobra and Captain Khruschota did say that a strong national defense is essential at maintaining peace and protecting their country from potential foreign invaders is what they're trained to do," Yamagata responded, "which was something we learned the hard way." The mustache man finished mournfully.

Kenshin and the others, save for Saitou and Kragas, noticed the sorrowful look on the powerful Japanese leader's face when he mentioned, 'learned the hard way'.

"I'm going to guess that Hajime must've mentioned something about the Imperial Army and Navy engaging in a... series of skirmishes against the continent's inhabitants."

Kenshin cringed at hearing the word 'skirmishes' twice today, and he cringed in fear even more at the thought of the answer no his upcoming question he was about to ask the military leader, "How long were these skirmishes going on and how many..." Kenshin paused and took a deep breath before finishing his question, "how many casualties were there?"

"About a month and... less than 3300, while are adversary lost just over 1200, both demon and human, not a big deal." Saitou said emotionlessly before sipping some more of his tea.

"Almost 4500?" Kenshin whispered to himself lowering his head and clenching his fists, it was as though somebody stuck a dagger into his back.

Kaoru noticed the expression on Kenshin's face, despite it being concealed by this red bangs. She felt deeply sorry for the thousands of lives who were lost and she also greatly understood to what Kenshin was feeling right now that she placed her hand atop of Kenshin's.

"As I said Battousai, not a big deal."

"Hold on a minute you cold hearted jerk!" Misao yelled standing up.

"Misao!" Omasu and Ochika both pleaded for her to calm down.

"How could you take this so lightly? Over 3000 of your men died and your saying its not a big deal?! Aren't you being a little cold hearted!?"

"Yeah wolf face!" Yahiko stood up in agreement.

"Little morons." Was his only reply.

"WHAT WAS THAT!? Misao and Yahiko threw blank angry eyes at the insulting police officer with the greatest of urges to give him a thrashing.

"Now now you two, he is a police officer who could arrest you, that he could." Kenshin tried calming them down, before things got violent.

"I hate to say this, I really do," Sano surprisingly began, "but Saitou's actually right."

Almost everyone turned and gasped at Sanosuke who just agreed for the first time with Hajime Saitou. The only guy they know that wants to kill Kenshin.

"Ohh... So you probably have a theory to why you should agree with me?" Saitou sneered at him.

"Yeah I do." He said mildly glaring at him.

"Enlighten us." Saito smirked lighting up a cigarette.

"Alright. Almost 5000 deaths from both sides caused by two armies fighting each other. That's normal. But that number would be nothing compared to what might've actually happened. An all out war." Sano pointed out before continuing, "And that's probably why this King Forrgon is coming to Japan to sign a treaty, to prevent any more killing between the two countries. And I'd say that this demon army probably reacted violently at the sight of an unknown foreign army on their shores, since they probably didn't want anyone else to know of their existence. Thats my theory."

Saitou grinned while blowing out some smoke, "I guess your less moronic than I thought."

Sanosuke smirked at the complement.

"Still, in the end," The wandering swordsman began his response, "it was unnecessary for any of those men, demon or human, to die needlessly, that it most certainly was." His voice was laden with guilt for both the men and the demonic creatures who met a bloody end.

Kenshin felt the somewhat calloused, yet very soft female hand, tighten its grip around his.

"Rustaros eetoy Kringas fretis blutisch øllyukips beruuł lœwêt îjop werta hiesse dæg."

"The king feels complete regret of those whose blood that stains the once peaceful sandy soil of the beaches." Yamagata sorrowfully translated.

"I don't think that Lieutenant Cobra was regretful on his part." Saitou added tapping his cigarette to remove the ashes.

"Who is this Cobra?" Ochika asked, after when everyone else noticed that the name Cobra, was mentioned twice by the two men from the government.

"An adversary that single handedly killed 150 of our men in three minutes." The wolf answered removing the cigarette from his mouth and holding it between his index and middle fingers.

"150 men?!" Omasu and Ochika said in unison.

"Three minutes?" Kaoru gasped.

Saitou nodded, "All armed to the teeth. Guns, swords, everything! And when I fought him he defeated me without much effort, but for some reason spared my life."

"I find it hard to believe that someone would be that stupid enough to let someone like you live!" Yahiko glared coldly at Kenshin's nemesis.

"Yahiko, quit making yourself look like an idiot." Sanosuke commanded.

"What was that!?"

"Kenshin spared Saitou's life and your calling him stupid?" Sano asked.

Yahiko's face turned blue for indirectly calling his idol's non-killing vow stupid. And thought of all the opponents Kenshin has had to face, that he could've killed.

"Plus," Aoshi interjected, "I don't classify a man er... demon that kills 150 enemy combatants and sparring one, counts as merciful. Still, just as Saitou says, what could this Cobra's reasons be for sparing you?"

"Yuuthosork Kringas brütôsas usark jüjalipment norka bättęr."

"Huh... I think he said the king's younger brother uses his judgement in battle. I don't know what he means by that. Himura do you? Himura!"

Everyone immediately forgot the politician's translation, and turned to Kenshin, who was visibly shaking, lightly, due to the recent stories of men dying needlessly. Kaoru placed her hand on Kenshin's back in a small effort to provide some comfort to calm him.

Yamagata closes his eyes and nodded in understanding, "Hmmm... It appears as though Himura is in conflict with his emotions after unnecessarily hearing the news..."

"No! I'm fine, that I am. But why don't we listen to how a truce was called in the first place. It might take my mind off of all this talk about killing. However, Saitou..."

"Hmmm?" Saitou shifted his amber eyes towards the wanderer, puffing on his cigarette.

"Before you leave I want you to talk more about this Cobra. But now I want to hear Lord Yamagata, that I do."

"Very well." Yamagata nodded.

He turned his head to the side, gesturing towards the carriage at the dojo gates, "Captain Khruschota?!" He called out.

The door to the carriage opened, and out stepped a masculine figure. As the figure, made its way to the group, almost everyone gasped as their eyes went wide at the person before them. For the only thing they saw from the middle ranking officer was the metal covering half of his face.

FLASH BACK. JULY 21, 1878.

Aritoma Yamagata, mounted on his horse, stood on the beach of a mysterious foreign land, flanked by four other mounted high ranking officers, two on each side, with a 1000 soldiers, backed up by 350 cavalrymen of the Imperial Army of Japan. Armed to the teeth with rifles and swords, 10 cannons and 5 Gatling guns, and finally 10 ships from Japan's Imperial Navy.

Every man was on full alert, for 1000 feet away from them, stood another army in front of the tree line. A demon army. And inside this thousand or more so army contained what looked like... human soldiers standing proudly alongside their demonic comrades, also armed with guns and swords, and at least 20 howitzers.

However, this interspecies army's armaments had a surprising variation; they had shields, both wood and metal, spears, scythes, body armor, full and partial, axes, and more surprising... bows.

The sun was absent, making it cloudy. Yamagata was filled with dread, thinking of it as a sign for another day of bloodshed. In the past month, more than 3000 men have died needlessly on foreign soil, from the several skirmishes that have taken place with no pleasurable results.

Just then, there was movement inside of the powerful demonic-human military, catching the attention of the Japanese army. Yamagata also saw this, but it didn't look like they were about to attack. Two minutes later, out of the front lines of the demonic army, came five horsemen galloping through the sand towards the all human army.

Aritoma Yamagata, the lord of the Imperial Army of Japan, felt a ray of hope, shining down upon him, and striking his heart with something he couldn't quite describe.

Some of his soldiers felt differently and drew their swords, readied their guns and...

"No!" Yamagata ordered extending his arm out as a supporting gesture.

They quickly obeyed his order, realizing that this maybe their ticket back home.

"Sir?" One officer asked.

"I think that Buddha, maybe be smiling down upon us. Come let's meet the enemy, not as fighters, but as negotiators."

He didn't say another word, and when he saw the five horsemen ceased their galloping half way from their previous location, waiting for them, Aritoma silently decided to join the other five, and took off on his horse, and was quickly followed by his four officers.

A few minutes later, they met their counterpart representatives, who were still mounted on the horses, and stood six feet away from the other side.

Aritoma stood in the middle of his group, in front of the supposed, leader in front of him. However, he and his four officers were shocked to when they saw the middle horseman's face, or whatever was left of it and not replaced.

The unknown horseman's head rather roundish, in a somewhat circular figure. His face, or at least the left half, had a dull greyish color with several shades of black, and few red rectangular markings were found on his cheek and chin.

The other half was... two peaces of thick metal bolted to each other, save for a thin horizontal slit acting as a eyehole to see through, if there was an eye back there, and then screwed into place, with two very thick leather straps going around his head and back half way. This physical characteristic, indicates that this man or creature has seen some pretty rough battles in his life. The only two things that weren't covered by the metal on his face were his mouth and nose.

He had horns coming out, near the top of his head at a 90° angle. However, the two horns looked worn out from years of neglect and abuse. The one on his right side, was broken in half creating a slant, and the other was at least a foot long, but clearly showed the abuse, for it was dulled, chipped in places like the other, and a couple of hair thin cracks.

"Staten yourn namen pleasen." The middle horseman spoke in a broken language, with a nasally voice.

The five Japanese men snapped out of there trance, and looked cautiously into the horseman's visible brown eye.

"Uhh... Aritom... Ahem! Aritoma Yamagata!" He responded after slightly hesitating, but finished in a dutiful manner.

"Strangen namen strangeren. Mine namen'es Captain Aratoma Khruschota, of'n 87th battalion of'n the third Iron Brigaden Armeen. Are youn the leaderen of'n truppens here'n?"

"I am."

"Are youn leaderen of the country therein from?"

"No, but I am the leader of _all _the soldiers _from_ the country which they serve."

"What'n your ranken?"

"Lord of the Meiji imperial army."

"Meiji. No hearden of Meiji before."

"It's the name of the era are country has been in for the past 11 years."

"Staten namen O' country pleasen."

"Japan. Now will you please tell me of the country your serving kind... sir?"

"Cobreiny. Önd leaderen isht greaten Kingen Ebenezer Forrgon. I comen heren talksen peacen."

"And peace is what we desire most after a month of blood shed."

END OF FLASHBACK.

After Aritoma explained for 10 minutes, and an an additional of two more cigarettes being smokes by Saitou, on what happened, he realized the time and he and the two demons got up for the carriage waiting to take them to their next meeting.

"So," Kenshin began to clarify, "the cease fire that you agreed to, has lead to a signing of a long lasting treaty, hopefully. And their king would like to meet me and my friends?"

"Yes, and a ball will be held next week, in honor for the upcoming historic event, in the outskirts of Tokyo, at one the of Emperor's palaces, that will be transformed into an embassy for the demonic country. You're also invited Himura and your friends here, in fact you have a 20 invite limit. So just give them to Saitou, he'll be more than happy to oblige. Right Saitou?" Aritoma finsished before climbing into the carriage.

"Right." Saitou answered in his Goro Fujita persona.

"Thank you." Kenshin bowed.

The carriage took off, creating a small trail of dust in the air, that quickly dispersed.

Kenshin and Saitou stood under the dojo's gates watching the carriage disappear from their sight down the dirt road, as everyone else cleaned up after themselves.

"Now Battousai, let's talk about your interest in the King's younger brother Cobra." Saitou suggested, creating a serious look on Kenshin's face.

* * *

DONE! I'm sorry if the ending wasn't really good. I just wanted to end this chapter finally.

How did ya like the demon language I made up.

Now what's they're to talk about Cobra and what is the king like, find our next time.

Please review.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 4 LOSERS! Not very good to the story as I wanted it to be. But still better than nothing. Sorry if this took so long, I have a tendency to work and brainstorm on more than one chapter in this story. Well read and review please. Review Seriously.**

**Oh and I decided to change the date of the story from lat August to early September. I'll explain later next chapter. **

* * *

An hour went by since their most recent visit from Lord Yamagata and those two demons, and everyone there went about their daily routine. Kaoru and Yahiko were practicing with their bokkens in the yard. Omasu and Ochika sparred each other in their ninja outfits, Aoshi sat on the porch drinking his tea, and Misao gave her Lord Aoshi some company.

However, despite their efforts of trying go along with their day, they were finding it difficult to do since it seemed like not five minutes ago did they have guests of another... 'origin'.

"Man that Khruschota guy did have one heck of a face, or half of a face." Yahiko said while practicing with his bokken.

"I agree." Aoshi said.

"I guess I was wrong." Kaoru said aloud swinging her shinai.

"Wrong about what Kaoru?" Yahiko asked.

"The suffering Kenshin had to go through." Kaoru softly replied.

"Are you listening to yourself right now ugly!?" Yahiko shot at her.

"That's not what I meant. When I saw that man's face, how disfigured it was, I can't imagine what he must've gone through, not just him, but other soldiers like him probably endured something just as bad... or much worse. Worse than the suffering Kenshin had to go through."

"Miss Kaoru!" Misao was shocked.

"I'm sorry I didn't know what I was thinking." Kaoru paused from her practicing and shook her head.

"But, despite external scarring," Aoshi interjected, "their internal scarring is incomparable to what the Battousai has had to deal with."

"I think you're right about that Aoshi. Even though that are other people that suffered more than Kenshin in the past, but I think that the suffering Kenshin is going through today in the Meiji era is the worst anybody has had to go through." She solemnly said still keeping up with her strokes.

"Not as bad as your ugly face!" Yahiko teased.

SMACK. Yahiko held his head in pain after feeling Karou's wooden sword come into contact with the top of his head for the insult.

"OWW! What was that for!?" He glared at his sensei.

"Do 100 more strokes!" She glaringly commanded as she kept striking the air with her shinai.

Meanwhile, away from the rest of the group, Saitou and Sanosuke sat on the porch near from where Kenshin was doing laundry, much to Saitou's surprise that his rival would actually partake in such an activity.

"Hey Saitou, this Cobra guy, was he a skilled swordsman?" Sanosuke asked chewing on his fishbone that has become a trademark. "He had to have been if he defeated you, and 150 men in just short time."

The cop blew out some smoke from his cigarette, "He was skilled, but swordsman I doubt."

"Huh?" Sano looked at him with utmost curiosity.

"I don't think used a sword. He had a few long and oddly shaped knives on his belt, and a few handguns, but I don't think he used any of those."

Sano blinked in half confusion and half shock, "What he killed those guys with his bare hands?"

"What did you not get out of that you moron?" He glared at the ruffian.

"What'd ya say!?" Sano held up a fist.

"Saitou how did he beat you?" Kenshin asked, eyes focused on the laundry.

"I used all four Gatotsu techniques against him, and none of them even gave him a scratch. I used the first technique a second time, but parried it with his bare hand and he gave me one good punch to the gut." He finished saying with an annoyed look.

"Ahah! So I can settle the score with you by using my fists. But I'll do ya a favor, me and Kenshin will do our part in kickin' this Cobra guy's ass! That sound good to you?" Sano asked somewhat teasingly.

"Moron! I doubt he was even using a third of his strength." He growled.

Sanosuke had a perplexed look, "What are you saying?

"I'm saying he maybe better than the Battousai, Me, Aoshi, and lastly you. Probably stronger than us put together!" He clarified as he continued puffing on his cigarette.

A strange silence engulfed the three of them as they thought of this Lieutenant Cobra being a second Makoto Shishio.

"Saitou you didn't answer Sano's question from before. This Cobra, how exactly did he kill those men?" Kenshin asked breaking the silence standing up from his crouching position.

"I'm not sure. All I know is that his hands were covered in blood, so he must've been using his fists. But the wounds found on the bodies had large claw marks, like those of an animal, but many of them had small but fatal punctures in their vital areas like those of a short sword or a dagger. But as I said, I'm not sure."

"How could you be not sure!?" Sano asked as he and Kenshin sweat-dropped.

"I was dealing five others in those three minutes." He twitched his eyebrow in irritation.

"Five others? Damn these guys must have some serious training goin if they're able to give you some trouble." The ex-gangster implied with his arms crossed and eyes closed.

"Kenshin are you done with the laundry yet!? Kaoru asked coming around the corner, wiping the sweat off her face with a hand towel, followed by the three female and two male companions.

"Almost Miss Kaoru, that I am. Saitou tell me more."

Everyone stopped and focused their attention on the ex-shinsengumi captain, realizing there was an important conversation going on.

"Himura you guys talking about that Cobra creep that kicked wolf face's ass?" Misao asked mockingly.

Saitou responded by placing his hand on the end of the sheathe that met with the hilt of his sword, and slightly pushed it up with his thumb in a threatening manner, causing the small female ninja to yelp and hide behind Aoshi.

"He had on some kinda sand colored uniform, a strange piece of body armor that covered his torso that was dark blue, fingerless gloves, a black round head and face, odd since his neck showed a regular white color no different from the rest of us, covered by a strange blue helmet-"

Kenshin sweatdropped at this, "That's not what I meant!"

"Don't interrupt Battousai! He was at most two feet taller than Sagara here, and at least 20 percent more muscular. But more importantly, his eyes... the color of his irises were... black."

Almost everyone shuddered and widened their eyes at the thought of meeting a one person, or demonic, killing machine with black irises. Only three of them met one person like that.

However, Kenshin... knew _two _individuals that had black eyes. One evil. And one pure. But both were dead.

"So... a guy just as psychotic as Kurogasa huh?" Sano asked himself

"I don't think he was psychotic." Saitou responded.

"He killed 150 men in three minutes! How is that not psychotic?!" Omasu, Ochika, Misao, Kaoru, and Yahiko all asked in unison with sweat drops going down their heads.

"He was merely a soldier performing his duty of protecting his country. And did so perfectly. For his charcoal colored face held no smile of satisfaction whatsoever, it looked almost exactly like the Battousai's face during the revolution." The wolf smirked as he reminisced his rival's formal trademark facial expression.

He turned his amber eyes towards the peaceful swordsman, "In fact he kinda reminded me of you."

"Listen Saitou." Kaoru began in a irritated tone as she raised her bokken in a threatening manner.

"Not listening." He bluntly said causing Kaoru to, all at the same time, sweat-drop and nearly fall over.

Saitou dropped his cigarette to the ground and stepped on it as he stood up.

"Well then... I guess I should take my leave now."

"Hey Saitou! Don't forget you and I have a score to settle." The former Zanza reminded him eagerly cracking his knuckles.

"Whatever moron... Oh and here Battousai. For you and the chicken-head." The wolf cop said pulling out a foot long black envelope out of his jacket.

Kenshin and Sanosuke both looked at it with a serious gaze. The three female ninjas left the scene, knowing it wasn't there concern. Kaoru stared at it with great negativity, since it meant that Kenshin would leave the dojo late at night, and cause her to worry.

Saitou handed it to the short swordsman, "Take care of it tonight." And with that he turned to leave.

"Do you mind if I go along?" Aoshi asked.

"Whatever floats your boat." He shrugged.

Just then they heard three pairs of foot steps coming their way. Two of them quickened.

"Uncle Kenny there are monsters everywhere!" Cried out the familiar voices of two little girls that were charging at full speed towards their beloved Uncle Ken.

"Monsters everywhere!" The other girl repleated.

"Oro!?" He yelped as the two little girls tackled him. Everyone excrept for Saitou and Aoshi, watched in amusement as their favorite redhead swordsman was tackled to the ground by two little girls.

"Hello there Ayame and Suzume. What monsters are you talking about?" He laughed.

Three female ninjas returned to see what commotion was going on. Misao squealed in delight and ran to the two little girls who in return charged at her and hugged her and she hugged them back.

"Don't worry children, Sir Ken can take care of anything." A female doctor mildly boasted.

"Yeah if he tries." Saito scoffed.

"Excuse me Mr. Policeman are you gonna put big monsters in jail forever?" Ayame asked looking up at the wolf cop.

"Forever!" Her sister repeated.

"Only if they cause trouble." He responded.

"And in a humane way Saitou?" Kenshin inquired.

Saitou sighed and shook his head and walked away saying, "Remember. Tonight at eleven."

He smirked as he received a very cold glare from Megumi, guessing she saw the black envelope.

"Making Sir Ken do your dirty work again you fake cop!?" She asked protectively of Kenshin's safety and dignity, as she placed her closed hands on her hips.

"Madame I have other things to attend to. And I'm making the Battousai do something useful. Plus there's a special someone I have to meet."

"Oh I guess the cold hearted, arrogant, rude, and unforgiving Wolf of Mibu is interested in women after all."

"Course I'm interested in women, I'm happily married to one." He held his nose high.

Megumi thought of an image of Saitou happily holding a equally happy woman, but discarded it thinking he was bluffing.

"Course I wouldn't expect a fox like you to understand the happiness created by marriage." He stated as he finally left the premises.

Megumi deeply and angrily growled at the the cop for the insult.

"Don't worry Auntie Megumi, that policeman is only in a bad mood because he doesn't have his wife with him." Ayame stated.

"No wife with him." Suzume repeated.

"Hmph! I doubt he even knows the fundamentals of marriage. Right Sir Ken?" Megumi asked as fox ears sprung from her

"Hmm?" Kenshin turned towards her.

Kaoru's mind yelled angrily at that question,_ 'Dont bother Megumi! You probably heard about that wedding ring he gave me by accident on Tanabata day! Proving he doesn't even know how to make a woman happy on a romantic night like that, or at all! Still, he managed to give me some beautiful flowers. Those at least cheered me up.'_

"I'm pretty sure you would know what marriage is like right, or would like too, or experience from serious courtship right, or-"

"Miss Megumi I do not wish to have a discussion of any romantic aspects of my personal life in the past, or present or future, that I may or may not have encountered, that I do not. Especially marriage." He stood up and flashed his Rurouni smile, yet his response was a little blunt.

Kaoru widened her eyes at Kenshin's back to her, before leaving the area he was in to play with Ayame and Suzume, for he not only blew off Megumi's question, he might have just given out a hint of a possible old flame or two and flatly refused to speak about it.

'_I think I just found a way for me to open up Kenshin's heart. He might've actually had some experience with love at one point in his life. And something must've went wrong that caused him to turn his back on romance. And if that was the case, what happened?' _Kaoru thought.

In Kenshin's head, _'Besides I haven't even come to terms, settlements, or conclusions of my old and renewed feelings for Miss Kaoru... yet. But still... I don't even know what to do about my old and current feelings for... __her._

_'I was right! Himura might actually have an old flame he can't forget!' _Misao thought as she gave Suzume a piggy back ride.

Aoshi narrowed his icy blue eyes at the swordsman and began to wonder, _'Is it possible that that rumor around you is true Battousai?'_

Megumi's eyes became beady and her fox ears disintegrated. Two red veins pulsates off her head after her flirting was blown off by Kenshin's blunt response.

_'Get ahold of yourself Megumi! There's a reason for putting your trust into Kaoru, since she's the one he has strong feelings towards too!'_

_"Well well Kenshin. I think you just finally gave yourself away. I'm guessing that the missy will be asking Kenshin a few questions. I better find out a few things from him first." _Sano thought narrowing his eyes.

The day went by as normal as everyone struggled to do so. Megumi told everyone the the mixed feelings and behaviors the city was going through right now.

"The people in town are mostly shocked to hear the existence of this demon race and this continent. They're also confused to know that a demon king loves peace and would go out of his way to see it."

"Yamagata came by and brought two of them over. One of them which had half a face." Yahiko stated swinging his bokken.

"Yeah and there beloved king wants to meet Himura. That's why old narrow eyes was here." Misao said as she played with the two little girls.

"This King Forrgon does? What would he want with Sir Ken? And by any chance, those three demons, they didn't give him or you guys any trouble did they?"

"There were two." Yahiko corrected.

"I included Hajime Saitou. He's probably a demon himself!" She tossed her hair back and scoffed.

"You do remember that he kept me from killing you when I came looking for the Battousai right?" Aoshi asked raising an eyebrow.

"Shut up. Anyway what were they like? Did they cause trouble?" The fox doctor asked as she took a long sip of her tea.

"Nah, they were okay. The first guy, Kragas Varrooshka, not really anything much to him just a diplomat from the king." Sano answered leaning back against one of the wooden support beams on the porch.

"Yeah but that demon soldier, Captain Khruschota, half of his face was made of metal! I mean strapped and screwed into place!" Yahiko exclaimed.

"I know," Megumi said dryly, "As soon as I opened up the clinic this morning, Yamagata brought him over for a check up... any signs of infection. I don't wish to say anymore about what I saw. Right now, I am waiting for tomorrow to treat some of the mutilated and disfigured men as a result of there battle against the demons." Megumi said with fear building up. Everyone else listening gave an unspoken response and only nodded in response.

Later at night. Kenshin, Aoshi, and Sano stood at the dojo gates to carry out the mission Saitou gave them earlier. Their assignment was to capture or kill a notorious crime lord smuggling drugs and military weapons. They were also to expect armed resistance from this man's army of bodyguards, that Aoshi was more than likely to kill at least half of the private army and the crime lord if he got to him first that is. Sanosuke didn't plan on taking lives, but he'd said if he happened to take a few lives tonight, then he'd live with it.

"Aoshi and Sanosuke, you two ready?" Kenshin asked.

"As I'll ever be Battousai." Aoshi responded emotionlessly as he slid his twin kodachis into their single sheathe.

"We got your back buddy!" Sano boasted punching his fist into his hand.

"Okay lets go-"

Kenshin was interrupted when he felt two arms wrap around his waist from behind and felt someones head rest against his back. He could tell right away who was giving him the hug.

"Miss Kaoru?" He sounded confused as he looked over his shoulder.

"Please come back safely Kenshin." She pleaded.

"I will Miss Kaoru. Just go to bed please. You need your rest, that you do." He politely said.

"Yeah don't worry missy. Besides if I catch Kenshin having even the slightest thought of wandering off again... he'll have a nice three day nap!" He threatened cracking his knuckles.

Kaoru only buried her face deeper into the back of his gi and muttered, "Can I have a word with him alone please?"

"Yeah of course. That means you too Yahiko!" Sano said as he and Aoshi moved away from the two.

"And Misao." Aoshi added.

They both fell out of a nearby tree. Misao, being a ninja, landed gracefully, with blush of embarrassment and a sweat drop appearing on her head, chuckling nervously. Whilst Yahiko landed smack down on the ground with swirly eyes and appeared to be unconscious.

"Sorry Lord Aoshi. I guess I don't need to explain do I? I'll take him back to his futon. Good night and be safe Lord Aoshi!" She ran to Yahiko's room before going to her room.

It was silent with only the sounds of the crickets chirping and only the two of them in the courtyard.

After about a minute, Kenshin broke the silence, "Is there something on your mind that you want to talk about Miss Kaoru?"

Kaoru didn't answer. She released the swordsman from her hug and walked around him to where she stood in front of him looking into his scarred, yet hansome curious face. He in turn stared into her sparkling sapphire eyes that held that all too familiar worried look in them as she had before when he left to fight Jin-e.

"I understand what you're thinking right now, that I do. But don't let-"

He was interrupted when Kaoru softly placed her index finger on his lips. Four or five minutes of her speaking to him and him nodding in assurance to whatever they were talking about passed.

Kenshin flashed her another of one of his rurouni smiles, "Alright Miss Kaoru, I understand everything, that I do. And I promise that I'll let you know immediately of my return. I only ask you to get some sleep, and tomorrow we'll start discussing the things that-"

He was interrupted again by Kaoru, but this time it wasn't a finger, instead it was her lips on his. Kenshin's eyes widened as Kaoru closed her eyes, stood on her top toes, placed her hands on his shoulders and somewhat quickly, yet gently placed her soft lips on his. She then gave him a couple of small pecks, before opening her eyes and blushing three shades of pink before running towards her bedroom.

Kenshin's face had a big hint of red as watched her retreating form into the house and brought his fingers to the place he had been kissed on, he was thoughtless and speechless. He regained his senses when he remember his assignment.

"I'll think about it later." He whispered to himself as his lavender eyes flickered with amber.

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Well what do ya think? You think Kenshin gave himself away? You think Kaoru moved too fast too soon? You think Saito wasn't Saitou enough? What were Kaoru and Kenshin talking about? You'll find out soon enough. Review please.


	4. Chapter 4

**OKAY SOMEBODY BETTER REVIEW. This took me forever. Plus nobody's been reviewing. This one's rather long. I try to get as much as I can into it.**

**Read and review. Please.**

**I don't Rurouni Kenshin.**

* * *

It was three days before the arrival of the great demon king. People had mixed feelings and ideas about this king. There were posters and newspaper pictures all over the country with imaginative descriptions of what the king might actually look like.

MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH.

Crowds formed on the sides of the streets Tokyo watching the Cobreinian army carry out its military parade. The soldiers marched in perfect unison with their goose steps. They wore oddly shaped, dark blue or forest green colored, helmets where at the edges of the sides of the headwear were angled at 120 degrees going upward from the ear covers. They wore black or green pull up masks covering half of their faces. The colors of their uniforms were either a field gray with shades of dark blue, or forest green. They also wore a somewhat oddly shaped piece of dark blue body armor covering their torsos.

It was a spectacle for the citizens of Tokyo who witnessed this event. For it wasn't everyday they would see a foreign army, much less a demonic foreign army, parading down their streets of their capital city, filling the air with the sound of their boots coming into contact with the ground and a song from them every now and then, spoken either in English, Japanese or whatever other language they were singing in.

They carried their bayonet attached rifles up against their shoulders and sung their free arms back and forth as they marched down the street, while their bayonets lightly glinted in the sun light. The soldiers formed three, 500 man box formations, 10 feet away from each other.

Kenshin, Kaoru, Sano, and Yahiko were amongst the crowd as they watched the 1500 soldiers, lead by three horsemen, parade vigorously down the street towards the palace turned embassy. Sanosuke reluctantly gave Yahiko a piggy back due to his height, and since he wanted to see the foreign demons.

It was the second time this week that these troops arrived on their coastal borders and marched in a small parade, except first time had at least 700 soldiers. The third group would be arriving in two days time, and was to have 500... larger demons.

MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH.

Then for the third time today they started to sing. (Try to imagine the English version of the Soviet National Anthem from Paul Robeson.)

_"United forever through the love of what we share,_

_Towards the land that which we fight for, that land is Cobreiny._

_Oh Mother Cobreiny,_

_ You are our beloved haven,_

_For Demons, for Dräkoens, and for Krêtans. _

_For we all are God's creation._

_Oh Cobreiny, we live for we die for,_

_We kill for we spare for,_

_We work for we rest for,_

_We fight for we make peace for,_

_We build for we destroy for,_

_Your ongoing survival._

_Long live the mighty Demon race,_

_Long live its human brethren,_

_Strong in our friendship tried by fire,_

_Long may we protect our glorious land __and all her peoples,_

_Long live sacred Cobreiny."_

MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH.

They sung in great pride with whatever accent they were using. Kaoru, Sano, and Yahiko watched in awe and listened to their patriotic melody. Kenshin could only smile for these foreign demons. He was beginning to understand why these demons and human allies were so willing to fight and die for their country.

_"For all times and for each new generation,_

_Will be given the task,_

_To keep you strong and healthy for life,_

_Politically and Socially,_

_Militarily, Economically, and Morally._

_Long live the mighty Demon race,_

_Long live its human brethren,_

_Long may our scarlet flag inspire,__  
_

_Bravery and Glory,_

_Honor and unwavering National Pride._

_As long as Sacred Mother Cobreiny,_

_Continues to be our beloved haven, _

_The mighty Demon race has a home, _

_For all times and for each new generation._

_Long live the mighty Demon race,_

_Long may we risk life and limb,_

_To protect our land."_

MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH.

_"Long live sacred Cobreiny."_

MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH MARCH.

The troops disappeared as they moved deeper into the city, towards the western outskirts of the capital. An hour went by, and the crowds that had witnessed the small parade, dispersed and went about their daily business.

An hour passed, Kenshin, Kaouru, Yahiko, and Sano were at the Akabeko, where they met up with Aoshi and Misao who already got them a table. Yahiko was telling them the small parade they put on and described how human their bodies looked, despite their uniforms. He also went on about how cool they looked in their uniforms including that armor.

"Oh Lord Aoshi, I wish you would wear body armor like them. It would be like those Western princess stories. I would be the princess watching my knight in shining armor, courageously lead a demon army." Misao stating a dreamingly, compliment about her (A/N: As if) Lord Aoshi.

Kaoru sweat dropped at the highly optimistic comment. Yahiko scoffed at the idea and mumbled, "He would be your gloomy knight in stony armour."

Aoshi, being a cold stone that he is, paid no attention to her compliment as he quietly drank his tea.

Kaoru changed the subject by asking where Omasu and Okon (Ochika) were. Misao told them they went back to Kyoto a couple of hours ago to check on things there. And to make sure Okina wasn't being a pervert. And to see Kenshin's master.

Tae and Tsubame came over to check if everything was alright with the food

As they were eating, Kaoru was sitting next to Kenshin and noticed that he was somewhere else in his mind. She could tell for he was stone silent, rivaling Aoshi at it, he was staring blankly at his rice blow, which he was _very_ slowly eating from, and had barely touched anything else since they started.

Kaoru secretly frowned at him for moment because whenever he was like this it meant something was on his mind, either being the plans for the rest of the day, if something wasn't troubling him, or deeply thinking about... Kyoto.

However she discarded the theory that something troubling was the matter of him being so preoccupied. She set down her food and pushed back the red bangs covering his face and lightly shook her hand in front of his eyes.

His reaction was verbal and it was an, "Oro?"

He looked to his left and saw the young woman wearing the smile that he cherished greatly beaming at him. He looked back at her with his confused child like eyes, and innocent expression.

"I'm sorry Kenshin I just wanted to make sure you were still with us." Kaoru giggled.

Kenshin just looked at her for a few seconds before smiling back at her.

"I'm sorry Miss Kaoru. I guess I was just in my own little world."

"Yeah you have a tendency to do that don't ya Kenshin?" Sano asked taking a sip of some sake.

Kaoru nodded in agreement at the statement, "So what were you thinking about Kenshin? If its not too much ask."

"Yeah what's on your mind Himura?" Misao asked.

"It's nothing really to be concerned about, that it isn't. Its just this whole... Demon race thing. I never had the slightest thought that demons could have a physical existence, let alone have race of them. But lately I have been really curious about this King Forrgon." He said drinking some of his forgotten tea that was already cold.

Before any of them could respond, a familiar figure stood by them looking at them.

"Well well. Took me long enough to find y'all." The person said in a familiar Southern accent.

"Cho?" Kenshin was little surprised.

"Police agent Cho Sawagejo, the Sword Hunter. Howdy Battousai." He smirked with pride with one eye closed.

"Hey broom head." Sanosuke nodded towards him.

"Rooster head." Cho nodded back in a slightly irritated tone.

"Do you care to sit." Kenshin politely asked.

"Nah," He waved his hand, "preciate it though. I already had some lunch at the Wolf Boss's new house." He said referring to Hajime Saitou.

"The Wolf's gotta new den Tokyo huh?" Sanosuke asked himself.

"Yep."

Kenshin then spoke up again, "I'm surprised he even invited you-"

Cho interrupted him and widened his eyes and spoke with shock in his tone, "He didn't."

Kenshin realized his expression, "His wife did."

Cho nodded, "Yeh. And my god, I reckon she has tuh be one 'o the sweetest little thangs I ever seen in my life."

"Is she like Buddha?" Misao asked in astonishment.

"She has to be if she can handle being the Wolf Man's mate! My God he was so calm it was freaky, like 'notha person. Or somethin' possesin' him or somethin'. Anyway 'nough small talk. Got somethin' for ya Battousai." He said pulling out a small wooden box with a letter out of his top.

"It's from King Monster."

Kenshin took the box and read the letter out loud,

_'Greetings Mr. Himura. I look forward of becoming acquainted with you and your friends on the 13th of September. Please accept this gift as a token of a potential friendship in the near future. However if this gift creates any offense against you please forgive me for I lack the knowledge if you are a man that refuses alcohol.'_

_'Sincerely, King Ebenezer Snakeskin Forrgon.'_

Kenshin's only comment was, "Well his Kanji is a little bit off." He smiled before handing the letter to Kaoru.

"Wow Himura! You haven't even met this 'King of the Demons' and already he's trying to make friends with you!" Misao exclaimed.

He proceeded to open the box and took out a clear glass bottle, with a yellow labeling on it. He couldn't read it for it was in another language. But luckily there was another note. He unfolded it and read it aloud too,

_'Assuming you might be curious, it is a bottle of Scotch Whiskey. A type of alcohol from the European nation of Scotland. Careful drinking this for Whiskey is at least two or three times stronger than that of the alcohol of your country.'_

"I'll have to thank the king for this foreign gift when I see him, that I do." He smiled as he placed the bottle back in the box and setting it aside.

Cho left them to their meal and in his place were Tae and Tsubame who came over to check on them see if everything was alright with the food. They also happened to overhear that Kenshin received a gift from the mysterious demon king.

"Well Sir Ken I knew you were a popular guy around these parts. But I never even imagined you would be so popular, that your fame would spread to this new mysterious country." Tae stated.

Kenshin laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head.

Kaoru interjected and pulled out two slips of paper out of one of her kimono's sleeve pockets, "Hey I have some invitations and passes for the day that we meet the king. Here's one for you Tae if you want to come with us. And since Yahiko will be with us there's one for you too Tsubame." She smiled at them.

Tsubame and Yahiko blushed intensely at the comment and all of them except for Aoshi laughed at them.

Kaoru gave them instructions to pack some clothing for they might be staying at the palace for a few nights and something for special occasions and to come by the dojo where some carriages will be waiting to take them just outside of town. The two female restaurant workers gracefully thanked Kaoru for the invites and returned to their work.

Another hour passed and the five of them finished eating. Aoshi paid for the meal and left a nice tip Tae and Tsubame.

-/;($:/$..,?!'~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~,,~,~~~~~~~~€£¥*£•=+£€?~|#%*

As they made it to the dojo, Yahiko and Misao ran past them to somewhere else in the premises.

"Oh yes I almost forgot to mention," Kenshin began with a serious look on his face as he walked along with the group inside the dojo's courtyard, "I received a message from Saitou this morning that I did, and it said we have another job to do tonight that we do." He said referring to Himself, Sanosuke, and Aoshi.

Kaoru, hearing this, froze immediately, body and mind. Her only response was, "Kenshin... is this going to become part of your routine?" She asked in a normal tone, but her eyes widened after hearing the news.

Kenshin's features softened as he looked at the girl. It pained him see to her thinking if she's going to be lonely for a long while.

"I'm sorry Miss Kaoru. But I-"

"Alright alright time out." Sanosuke interjected, "Listen Kenshin, why don't you sit this own out? Aoshi and I can take care of this. So why don't you and the little missy spend some time together?" He offered.

"Are you sure you two will be alright without me?" Kenshin said asking the wrong question.

"Kenshin you idiot of course they can it themselves!" Kaoru yelled at Kenshin pulling his ponytail, forcing him to let out an 'oro'.

"I don't think Misao would appreciate you doubting my abilities Battousai." Aoshi quietly said.

Kenshin didn't need hear anymore, "Okay I guess it wouldn't hurt to shirk one of my duties that it wouldn't."

Sanosuke smirked at his friend's comment, "Thats the spirit buddy! And don't worry, if Saitou asks I'll come up with something."

Kenshin smiled at his thug friend showing his gratitude.

_'And besides it wouldn't hurt to spend some time with... Kaoru.'_ He thought to himself.

Kenshin's musings were interrupted by Kaoru's sweet voice calling him, "Kenshin?! Hey Kenshin!"

"Oro? Oh Miss Kaoru." Kenshin realized that the two of the stood alone in the courtyard.

"You need to stop day dreaming so much Kenshin." She scolded him before giggling.

"Where's Aoshi and Sanosuke?"

"Aoshi went to your room to meditate and Sanosuke went to give a pass and invite to Megumi. But now tell me, what do you want tonight?" She asked with a tint of red forming on her cheeks.

"Well there's a play from England being held in town tonight. I considered it the morning after my..." He paused for a moment with a blush forming on hh is face as he scratched the back of his and bit his lip nervously.

Kaoru noticed his hesitation and the redness of his face and was confused by it.

She raised an eyebrow and asked, "The morning after your mission?"

His face grew redder and answered truthfully, "The morning after our last conversation... and when you... kissed me."

After hearing that, it was Kaoru's turn to have her face turn red.

"W-well Kenshin I-I have been w-wanting to ask you for some t-time now i-if you would be w-willing to uhh... you know... start going out with me." Kaoru stuttered her explanation.

Kenshin raised an eyebrow, "Going out?"

"Courting." She answered quietly looking down at the ground.

Kenshin lightly gasped and oh in realization to what she was asking.

Kaoru's blush receded but she kept her eyes on the ground with her hands behind her back and kick the dirt and continued, "We don't have to if you don't want to."

"Alright."

"Alright?" She asked looking up at with wide eyes and a tint of pink forming on her cheeks.

He flashed her with his trademark rurouni smile, "We can give it a shot, that we can. I was just thinking though that we should probably take it slow as possible that we should."

Kaoru smiled gracefully, for she felt she had just made a great achievement in her long over-due relationship with her redhead. She felt as though she finally made a small opening in the wall surrounding his heart or at least shortened the distance between them significantly. But she inwardly reminded herself that it was only a step or two forward, and that neither of them had actually admitted their feelings to each other, but it was a small progression for her to be content with for now.

Kaoru fought the urge to hug him and merely responded, "But lets keep it between us I don't really anyone to get the wrong idea just yet... neither do I want give it to us just yet."

"Agreed." Kenshin smiled.

Kaoru took a deep breath to calm her self and continued speaking, "Well I leave all of the plans for tonight to you Kenshin right now I need to go train Yahiko. Oh and do you think that we could have a little bit of that Western drink called scotch, King Ebenezer gave you?"

He pulled the box containing the whiskey out of his gi and gazed at it, "Hmmm probably not. I'm kinda planning on saving it for later when I meet the king that I am."

She smiled at him, "Okay. Well I better get changed for Yahiko's lessons." She said before taking off to her room. But she stopped when she stopped outside her bedroom and turned to him with a smile and said, "Thank you for agreeing to go out with me Kenshin!" She turned around and entered her room closing the shoji.

Kenshin felt an unfamiliar yet warm feeling in his chest.

_'I guess it wouldn't hurt to court her.'_ He thought and smiled.

The very next morning came and Kenshin and Kaoru's date the previous night went... fairly smooth. Kaoru was sitting on the engawa and was telling, or was forced to by Misao since she was spying on them when the two made their plans that afternoon, to Megumi and the little spying of weasel ninja Misao how it went.

After the play, Kaoru made their date go at a... 'surprising turn'... with some help. Fox ears sprouted from Megumi's head and Misao became giddy, for they were thinking something really heated and intimate happened. She decided to make it a double with Hajime and Tokio Saitou, which in turn made the two women become friends. Megumi and Misao's heads fell anime style out of utter disappointment which was soon replaced by curiosity for this supposed Wolf's mate.

"She was really pretty, though I do feel sorry for Tokio." Kaoru said.

"What sorry she's married to that creep who nearly killed Sanosuke and Sir Ken? I would!" Megumi coldly and sympathetically remarked.

"No! But Tokio apologized for her Hajime's behavior. She just gets really lonely when the government sends her husband on a mission that sometimes lasts for weeks. Months even. And I told her that I know how it feels to be lonely." Kaoru said with sorrow.

"So uhhh... how did Himura and Officer Jerk behave?" Misao asked.

A vein popped up from Kaoru's head and responded with irritation in her voice, "Those two idiots were glaring at each other so much and had their hands on their swords half the time, we had to confiscate their swords for the rest of the night. You should've seen the look on their faces."

She looked up at them and smiled evilly for moment before raising a hand to her cheek and putting on a dreamy facial expression and smile, "But you also should've seen how Kenshin tried to apologize for me stop being angry with him and to get his sword back. He bought me beautiful flowers, two new kimonos, and for the first since he met me, he said that I looked beautiful, twice in fact."

"Oh Kaoru your so lucky that you're soon-to-be man gave you so much attention. I'm so jealous! I should try that on Lord Aoshi." Misao exclaimed.

Megumi raised an eyebrow and asked with amusement in her tone, "I'm assuming you didn't give Sir Ken his sword back until the date was over."

Kaoru nodded.

Fox ears popped up once more, "Good thinking Raccoon Girl. Perhaps next time you'll do that again to convince Sir Ken to give you his 'other' sword." Megumi said mischievously.

Kaoru's face blushed like a tomato after hearing that.

Misao interjected with a sly smile, "Or did you already think about it? Maybe even tried it?"

Kaoru's face grew redder by the second before squeaking out a no before fainting.

The young kendo instructor regained her composure and immediately changed the subject and informed her two friends that she invited Tokio and her family, Tsubame and Tae, for the event. Megumi said that received her invite from Sano, as payment for bandaging his hand after the mission Saitou gave him and Aoshi.

"What I hate about being doctor, is being a doctor for idiots." Megumi complained.

Kaoru and Misao didn't say anything. But an unknown voice did.

"Vell as a doctor ve all haff to put up vith ze most careless patients." The voice was masculine and was laced with a German accent.

The trio turned their heads and saw a man standing in the courtyard. He looked to be in his late 30s, he was at a height of 5'8 and was rather skinny. He had thin brown light brown hair combed to the back. He was wearing a red sweater vest, a black tie, a white long sleeve button up shirt, which were pulled up, brown dress pants and black dress shoes. He stood at least five feet away from the three Japanese women, who looked at him with curiosity.

Kaoru asked the man while trying not to sound rude, "Excuse me, who are you?"

"Ahh mein apologies Fräulein Kamiya. Ich hiesse, my name is Captain-Doctor Frederick Heissler. An old, long time friend of Ebenezer, sent to personally give Herr Himura a short, verbal message." He politely said with a smile and with his hands behind his back.

"Did somebody call my name?" Kenshin asked coming from around the corner of the dojo.

Frederick turned to him widening his smile.

"Oro? A foreigner? Uhh... bon jour?

"Ich spreche nicht Französisch. I do not speak French. I am German." He said extending his hand.

He took his hand and shook it.

"I apologize that I do." He smiled at his own ignorance.

"Mein name is Frederick Heissler, Herr Himura. I temporarily come vith a short message: Inform us how many are in your party, und ve vill send carriages to fit vith ze number. Bring appropriate clothing for ceremonial purposes, und casual clothing zat is nice. Ze nicest casual clothing available for social events outside of ceremonial vones. Zat is all. I must take leave now, I have some vork to do." He turned to leave the area.

THREE DAYS LATER.

The day had finally come. It was early afternoon of the 13th of September. Word came out that Demon King, Ebenezer Snakeskin Forrgon, had arrived in Tokyo the night before yesterday. The news papers said that he met with the Japanese Emperor to discuss plans of compensating those who lost a family member in the skirmishes that took place on foreign soil. That news made Kenshin very happy.

Kenshin sat with Kaoru on the engawa, after cleaning up the house and dojo, waiting for Megumi with Dr. Genzai's granddaughters, and Saitou's family to come over. Tae, Tsubame, Misao, Aoshi, and Yahiko were already to go, packed with clothes for a few days.

"So Miss Kaoru how do you like one of the new kimonos I bought you?" He asked flashing one of his famous smiles.

Kaoru's new kimono had a Prussian blue color, with butterflies and flowers.

Kaoru didn't responded. Instead she leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek. Kaoru pulled back with an innocent smile and a very light shade of red on her face.

Kenshin on the other hand, widened his eyes, oroed, and had a darker shade of red form across his face.

"And how you like your new gi Kenshin?" She asked sweetly.

Kenshin felt... uncomfortable with his new gi. It was dark blue. The same color he wore 10 years prior. But he didn't tell Kaoru, or give any objections outside of the 10 years reason, so not to hurt her feelings.

"I like it a lot Miss Kaoru that I do." He smiled at her.

He noticed that Kaoru tilted her head pushed her cheek upward. He was confused at this gesture. Her sapphire eyes shifted and met his amethyst ones and answered his sun unspoken question, "I find it unfair that you get a kiss on the cheek and I don't. Since I bought it for you, I think it should be your way of saying thank you to me."

He returned the light kiss on her cheek and blushed six shades of red as he pulled back.

Kaoru saw this and frowned, "Now don't tell me that Battousai the Legendary Manslayer is embarrassed about giving a pretty girl like me that he's courting, a little kiss on the cheek now is he?" She teasingly asked pinching his nose.

Just as Kenshin opened his mouth to reply, Yahiko interrupted him, "Hey Kenshin, what are you and Ugly talking about?!" He asked carrying his and Kaoru's bokkens.

"None of your business Yahiko!" His teacher shot back.

"Oh yeah?! Well why are you two holding each others hands?" He teasingly asked.

"Why are you not holding Tsubame's?" She shot back with a teasing smile.

Yahiko and Tsubame looked at each for a couple seconds and looked away, blushing like tomatoes, and Tae teased on how red the two of them were.

Yahiko was wearing his normal clothes. A yellow gi, white shirt, and a green hakama. Tsubame wore a simple yellow kimono and a red obi. Tae wore a lime green kimono and and a dark blue obi.

Aoshi, who was standing like a flag pole with hands in his pockets, wore a deep blue, collarless short-sleeved dress shirt with a goldenrod trim, matching deep blue slacks and shiny black dress shoes and a long, sweeping trench coat of light tan with a ribbed goldenrod interior trim. Something he hadn't wore since Shishio's scorching death.

Misao, who was twirling around Aoshi's twin-sheathed kodachis probably as some act to impress him, wore her ninja outfit.

"Hello we're here!" Megumi called out holding Ayame's and Suzume's hands, while Sanosuke tailed them carrying their bags. Ayame and Suzume wore there regular clothes. Sanosuke wore a black shirt under his white jacket and megumi wore her doctor kimono.

"Watch out Kenshin the Wolf pack is coming." Sanosuke said referring to Saitou, who showed up with his family.

Tokio wore a purple kimono and she had her long black hair pulled up into a bun where some of it stuck out, she held a little boy's hand that seemed to be her son. Saitou wore his usual police uniform and cap. What surprised everyone else, except for Aoshi, is that he was carrying a little girl in his arm and a small bag in the other. Then Kenshin saw another, older child that was familiar. It was Eiji.

(A/N:Okay I gotta wrap this up. I swear to god you better review! I'll eat your kids if you don't! With horseradish and avocado.)

Everyone made their introductions to the Saitou family. Explained Eiji's origins and his connections to Kenshin and Misao in regards to the Shishio case. They complemented Tokio that she had a skilled husband, leaving out the negative parts that she might be aware of already.

She introduced everyone to her 3 year old son Tsutomo. Who surprisingly had his father's antenna bangs and wolfish golden eyes. Akiko was 5 years old, and had both her mother's hair and a little bit of her father's eyes.

The carriages, three large ones, arrived to take them. They set out for the part western, part Japanese palace.

An hour passed and the arrived at the embassy. It wasnt much on the outside. Gray concete walls. There was a row of tall narrow windows arched at the tops and flanked by Greco-Roman style columns, reaching up to the two more rows of windows above only they were smaller.

* * *

Okay we're finally done! had to rush the ending. Planing on making a side story for Demonic Peacekeeper. Its only deleted scenes and scenes in the time skips.


	5. Chapter 5: Enter the Demon race

**Chapter 6 is here! Though I may need to tweak it a bit a few times. I would really if someone would review please. Do it! Or I'll eat your kids! Oh and I sad earlier I was gonna make a Something of a side story that just contains deleted or alternate scenes of Demonic peacekeeper. the deleted ones being the scenes either the ones that Are there in the time skips or the ones that I considered but never made the cut and never really have anything in within the time skips.**

**Read and review.**

* * *

As the Kenshin group and a few of their Kyoto and friends with the new wolf pack, entered the elegant palace, that was soon to be an embassy, they were greeted by a large room, that held the much-anticipated ball, full of political, business, and military leaders etc. from both Japan and supposedly abroad, as well as the sound of western music, possibly European, being performed by an orchestra somewhere in the room.

They took immediate notice of the demonic creatures eating, drinking, and conversing with their kin or their human counterparts. They realized after noticing that some of the humanly figures had specific physical characteristics, that an unknown number of the humanly figures were more than likely demons. But none of that mattered as they walked rather slowly inside the area, taking in this new atmosphere.

Akiko and Tsutomo hid either behind their parents or their adopted older brother Eiji in fear.

"Uncle Kenny I'm scared of these big mean scary looking monsters!" Ayame cried latching onto Kenshin's right leg.

Suzume latched on his left leg and repeated her sister, "I'm scared!"

Tsubame stepped behind Yahiko out of fear. Though he didn't seem to notice until he felt her hand lightly tugging the bokken slung on his back.

"Don't worry they won't eat us that they won't." He kneeled down petting their heads to calm them.

"Yeah besides Kenshin's gonna meet their king." Yahiko said.

"Wah! No do that Uncle Ken he'll eat you!" Ayame cried.

"Uncle Kenny he'll eat you!" Suzume repeating her sister's cry.

"If that doesn't happen I get second dibs." The wolf Saitou said to himself, loud enough for Tokio to hear, which earned him an elbow to the gut.

"Lord Aoshi will protect Himura!" Misao exclaimed.

"Aww don't worry about me. I can take care of myself." He tried to reassure them.

"Promise you won't go?" Ayame asked with hopeful eyes.

"Promise?" Suzume repeated.

"I just want to meet him first. He's probably a nice monster. And I already met two of them, that I did."

"Uncle Kenny you talked to two monsters?"

"Talked to monsters?"

"Mmmhmm." He nodded.

"Yeah and don't worry girls! A lot of These guys might be bigger with claws and fangs, but if they give Kenshin any trouble, they'll be scared of my fists!" Sanosuke declared.

"And Sir Ken's amazing abilities will beat-"

"Himura! You made it! The King of the Demons wishes to meet you now." Yamagata said interrupting Megumi, gesturing them to follow him

"Alright let's go." Kenshin agreed.

Before they left, three palace workers came to them and offered to take some of them and their luggage to the room they would be sharing. Megumi, Tae, Tsubame, Aoshi, and Misao took Eiji, Genzai's granddaughters, and the wolf pups, and followed the servent.

That left Kenshin, Kaoru, Yahiko, Sanosuke, Saitou and Tokio.

The group walked for a minute, passing the small clusters of people around them, until a man stood in their way. He was tall, about at most half a foot higher than Kenshin, minus the black top hat he had on, and appeared to be rather lean. He wore a long, buttoned, black single breasted jacket and under that you could see a black tie and a white dress shirt. His dress pants were black as well as his dress shoes. His head was almost entirely round and black, except for some thin white bell curved lines, that appeared to be the outlining of the scales. The color of his irises were blood-red that seem to glow. And his face held a great but short red beard and mustache. The color of his facial hair was the same color as Kenshin's. His neck and hands however were the same white color you found on most people.

"Ahh there you are good king! This is the great pacifist swordsman you wanted to meet." Yamagata stated gesturing towards Kenshin.

The group quietly gasped an awe at the appearance of the demon king who smiled very warmly and gracefully removed his hat, revealing his nicely combed to the side red hair.

Sano made a quick inward observation, _'So this is the guy huh? I was kinda expectin' someone bigger.'_

"Uhh... Ekkota." Was the only thing that Kenshin could think of to say.

The demon king's smile widened a bit, revealing a bit of his pearl white canines that blended in with the rest of his teeth, "Ekkota."

Kenshin felt nervous as he began to purposely speak in a broken manner with a slight accent, "Hello King Forrgon. I Kenshin Himura. Me please to meet you-"

"Hahahahahahahahaha! It is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Himura! For it is a great honor to be in your presence! I thank you and your friends and family for accepting my invitation." He said in a low pitch voice containing a mild British accent.

"Oro? You speak our language with normalcy. As a first language." Kenshin said in astonishment..

"Why yes indeed I do Himura the Battousai."

'How did he know!?' Kenshin and his group, except for a smirking Saitou, thought inwardly and in unison.

"Hey your Highness, Kenshin's not a manslayer anymore! He's got a no kill oath!" Yahiko defended.

Ebenezer looked surprised and immediately replied, "Alright young master I meant no offense."

"I've wanted to ask, how did you know good king?" Yamagata asked with curiosity.

The king pondered for moment, "Ninety percent of the demon race knows the name Battousai the Manslayer."

"How much is ninety percent?" Kenshin asked.

"Oh just over 70 million."

Kenshin's eyes widened like everyone else's.

"How is that possible?! Not the population I mean."

His face grew a noticeable sorrowful look, "Regretful to say and know that I have this knowledge, but several Demons and Krêtas felt a little war hungry around the time of the revolution that continues to be a plague of nightmares in this country."

Kenshin relaxed his composure upon on hearing this. "I see." He said with sympathy.

Saitou inwardly sneered at the mood of the subject.

The king brightened up, "But for now until later in the near future let's refrain from speaking of the past and let's speak about now. I am Ebenezer Snakeskin Forrgon. King of the Demon Race and Cobreiny. I bid thee welcome Kenshin Himura and his group of companions." He smiled warmly and extending his right hand.

Kenshin smiled in return and shook hands with the demon and took immediate notice of the extent of the calluses occupying his hands. Then his attention half-inch long, deep black, claw like finger nails that were slightly curved inwardly under the nails.

"You take notice of my claws Master Himura?" Ebenezer asked.

"Oro? Uhh I-I apologize King Forrgon!"

"Hahahahaha! No apologies are to be offered or accepted for no offenses have been committed. Now tell me rest of your friends."

Yamagata, seeing they were getting well acquainted, decided to part from them, "I shall take my leave, I need to see some important matters."

"Take care." Ebenezer bided.

"Now then," He turned his gaze towards the group and frowned, "Is this all in your group?"

"No the rest are getting settled in." Kenshin answered.

"I see I look forward to meeting them at dinner."

"You will." Kenshin flashed him his rurouni smile.

Ebenezer's blazing red eyes focused on Kaoru and asked, "Who might this young lovely lady be?"

"My name is Kaoru Kamiya." She introduced herself and bowed.

The king bowed and took Kaoru's right hand and kissed it. "The pleasure is mine." He smiled. Kaoru blushed a light shade of pink. Kenshin felt a small twinge of jealousy.

The demon straightened back up and released her hand.

"Assistant Master of the Kamiya Kashinne style I assume?" He smiled placing his hands behind his back.

"Yes I am." She answered proudly. "And this is my number one, impulsive, and rude apprentice Yahiko Myojin."

"Yeah! Hey!" Yahiko glared daggers at his snickering sensei.

"Is Miss Kaoru yours Master Kenshin?"

"Oro?"

"Is this your lover?" He asked in a innocent tone.

Kenshin's face turned redder than his hair at that question and so did Kaoru, "ORO!? N-No! M-Miss Kaoru and I have only recently started courting! That we have!"

That statement caught Yahiko's and Sano's attention for a second.

"Hahahah! Oh Mr. Himura there is no reason to be embarrassed!" The king warm heartily said as he slapped his back, "Now then, shall I hear of the introductions of the rest of this group?"

"Sanosuke Sagara." The ex-gangster said as he shook hands with the demon king.

"Goro Fujita and my wife Tokio." They both bowed.

"Successor of the Kashinne style Yahiko!"

"And that can explain the impulsive comment Miss Kaoru bestowed upon you Lord Yahiko. Those entitled as successors are said to impulsive and filled with enough pride to be arrogant." The king teased as everyone else chuckled at Yahiko's flusterd expression.

"Now that introductions are out of the way for the time being... would you care Mr. Himura, to clear up my curiosity of this oath of yours that the young man speaks strongly of?"

Kenshin's only answer was by taking his sheathed sword out of his belt and handed it to the king who looked confused at the wanderer's gesture and at the sword that he held in his hands. The king unsheathed half of it and was surprised to what he discovered. Kenshin told him that 10 years ago after the end of the Tokugawa regime, he became wanderer with a vow to never kill again.

"And so my oath is represented by that reversed blade sword, as a way to atone for all the men I have killed as a manslayer." He finished passionately yet calmly. The king smiled warmly at Kenshin's words as he stared at the swordsman in understanding and returned him his weapon.

Saitou rolled his amber eyes which did not go unnoticed by the smiling demon. Ebenezer's smile left him as his blazing red eyes looked away from the swordsman, and sheathed Kenshin's sword and snapped sights towards the cop's direction all in one motion.

"I assume you sword and vow creates some difficulties for you and some people." He muttered.

"Huh?" Kenshin asked.

"Nothing I was speaking to myself."

"My King, 2nd battalion led by Major Roger Uruz arrive 10 minute ago." Said a deep masculine voice covered with a strange, noticeably nasally accent.

The king looked past the humans and said. "Thank you Nikolai."

The King's new friends looked up in a mixture of awe and minor fear at the sight of a soldier that was at least 13 feet tall and back up by at least 300 something lbs of muscle. He wore the uniform and armor as the other Cobreinian soldiers and had a piece of thick black cloth wrapped around his face, only showing his eyes between the mask and helmet which was covered in dents and small holes. His body armor that covered his torso clearly showed signs of abuse from its time-worn in battle.

The soldier stood four feet away in front of Kenshin and sized each other up.

"Oro. You're tall."

"And you small." The tall soldier retorted looking down at the short redhead

"Everyone this is my old friend Major Nikolai Zakhaev. The bear demon from Russia."

"A pleasure." He bowed slightly before extending his hand.

"I-I'm Kenshin Himura." He nervously introduce himself to the large demon and extended his hand.

"Privyet Kenshin." He said in his deep voice.

"I'm pretty?"

"Wha? Nyet pretty, privyet. Privyet meanings hello in Russian." He clarified.

"Oh okay."

"So your from Russia? That explains your accent." Kaoru said.

"Mother Russia." The demon, in a friendly way, corrected.

"Mother Russia?" Kaoru raised an eyebrow.

"Mother Russia! Hahahaha! She biggest country in world! From China to Eastern Europe."

He Pulled out a map from a brown strapless leather musette bag attached to his belt.

"That is a big country!" Yahiko exclaimed.

"Da! But No ones live past Ural Mts. Anyways who are you people?" He asked putting the map back into his rectangular leather bag.

"Do you know what the Kamiya Kasshine style is Nikolai?" Ebenezer asked.

"Nyet."

The king gestured his gestured his towards Kaoru and continued, "It's a style of swordsmanship that Miss Kaoru teaches. Women participate in the art of swordsmanship now."

"They do?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

"They do." Ebenezer smiled.

Nikolai, despite the facial covering, appeared to be confused. "So women teach boys to kill?"

"The art of Kashinne is about protecting people without killing others." Kaoru said with pride.

Saitou rolled his eyes, thinking like it was a joke of a style.

Just then, a nearby foreign voice caught their attention, "Allah ybarek feek wal 'ayyam al-kadima." They turned and saw a man dressed armor that looked Arabic. He wore a white towel wrapped around his head, further signifying his origins. He had two swords on his back, which you could clearly see over his shoulders, that the handles cowered curved and beautifully decorated. His face was tan, and sported a black, pointed goatee and mustache.

"Who are you?" Kenshin asked.

"I am Yusef Karadeniz. Salaam Himura." He bowed speaking in a Arabic accent.

"What was that gibberish you were speaking?" Yahiko childishly asked.

"If it was gibberish I wouldn't have said it young swordsman." Yusef countered.

"What did you say?" Kaoru asked with a sheepish smile.

"It is Turkish: May Allah bless you and the days to come. I overheard your conversation and this sword style that teaches to protect life without taking it."

"You're from where?" Kenshin asked

"The Ottoman Empire, or Turkey actually. I'm a Turk. Member of the ruling Muslim population of the empire."

"I see." Kenshin said to himself.

"Yusef, did you happen to gain knowledge of Achilles's whereabouts perchance?" The demonic king asked.

Yusef's face showed some discomfort.

"Y-yes indeed I have. Right now he's in the act with a woman he met." He said in his accent with annoyment.

"And you must be Battousai the Manslayer." The Turk threw out which changed the subject.

"He Battousai the Manslayer? Honored to meet you." Said Nikolai.

Saitou, once again, inwardly smirked.

Kaoru got defensive of Kenshin's dark title, "He's not Battousai the Manslayer anymore. He's Kenshin Himura!"

"Yeah buddy! None of us except for Sai- I mean Fujita here aaand... probably Aoshi see him as Battousai. He's got a vow to never kill again." Sanosuke added in defense for his friend.

"I apologize, I meant no disrespect young lady and my chicken hair friend. For I was stating his title and the heroic deeds behind the alias." Yusef implied.

"You don't have to apologize that you don't." Kenshin smiled.

"Though I find it odd that a woman would be teaching swordsmanship, especially a style that goes against traditional swordsmanship. And I'm perplexed at Himura's vow since he has a sword."

"It's reversed." Kenshin said.

"A reverse blade sword? Those are indeed very rare my friend. That very few people are willing to forge, let alone wield," The Muslim pointed out, "Ancak Allah rahmet etsin ve sizin, her ikisi de inanç ve havarileri için barış ve ömrü tüm zaman. But may God bless the both of you and your beliefs and teachings of peace and life for all time." He translated with a friendly smile and a bow.

The Japanese group made their introductions to the Muslim and their neglected ones to the Russian, whose studied Saitou with suspicion.

"So what kind of demon are you?" Tokio asked the Turkish swordsman.

Yusef waved his leather gloved hand, "Oh I'm not demon Madame, I'm a Krêta-human."

Kenshin's mind clicked into realization. He's heard this 'Krêta' word several times since meeting Varrooshka.

"Excuse me Sir Yusef, but what is this 'Krêta' of which you speak? I've heard it mentioned more than once, that I have."

"Oh Krêtans are a species of humans that live longer and age slower. I myself, am someone of 57."

Yahiko's eyes were wide as saucers and exclaimed his response, "No way! Kenshin's 28 years old, but he doesn't look like it, so he must be a Krêtan himself!"

Nikolai lowered himself, to where his masked face was inches away from Kenshin's. His dark brown eyes starred into his amethyst ones. Just then, the Russian demon be breathed out some steam from his cloth cover face. Kenshin flinched from the unexpected puff of steam that lightly moistened his face. He then started sniffing the former manslayer and straightened back to conclude his investigation, "Aside from the smell of sweat and laundry, he no Krêtan."

Kaoru turned towards Ebenezer with the intent to ask him a question, "So I'm assuming that Mr. Heissler is a Krêta himself?"

"Your assumption is incorrect Miss Kamiya." The king answered.

"Huh?" Kaoru looked confused, as the did the group. Nikolai and Yusef chuckled quietly at the raven hair girl.

Ebenezer darkly grinned, "Do not let one's exterior characteristics fool you into assuming from what you see. My long time compatriot Frederick may not have the looks of it, but he is a demon himself... a Wolf demon to be precise."

A frown graced her features as so did Sano's. Yahiko scowled in mental agreement with Kaoru and Sanosuke for they knew that there were two wolves. Saitou raised his eyebrows in amusement. Tokio rolled her eyes at her husband and Kenshin just sighed quietly.

15 minutes passed, and the two foreign warriors parted from the king and the Japanese group.

As Kenshin and his friends were talking to their new demonic friend, a tall Cobreinian solider wearing a light blue uniform and that familiar strange piece of darker blue armor on his torso, walked up and stood next to the king on his right.

The soldier had a round black like Ebenezer with white thin curved outlines for his scales. At most he was two feet taller than the king. He wore black fingerless gloves and and dark brown boots. Unbeknownst to them, Saitou smirked at the sight of this particular soldier as though as if he knew him.

The king looked up and smiled warmly and introduced the soldier, "Ahh everyone! I'd like you to meet 2nd Lieutenant Cobra Venomous Forrgon, my younger brother." Ebenezer place his right hand on the taller demon's shoulder.

* * *

All Right we meet the Demonic King finally. Some of his friends and his brother I guess.

As I said before I'm gonna tweak it and fill up the small holes.


	6. Pointless Announcement

Another (even more) Pointless Public announcement!

Still gotta do the minor of the already posted chapters including future ones

I'm gonna give you a spoiler about the political aspect of the Demon Race in this story, I tell it will be rather complicated to explain the political functions of the Demon, Krêtan, and Dräkoen races.

But I'm gonna the lesson basic lesson of Demonic/Cobreinian politics of the executive branch. The tile: King (or Queen) of the Demon Race is passed down to the strongest out of a given number of candidates.

Requirements:

Strength, wisdom, age (only if two or more of candidates are related), will and determination, courage, etc. basically goes to the alpha male. One that can rule democratically.

Lesson is incomplete.

An alias for Ebenezer is here.

Bûarruukhöshar the Slasher.

Cobra the Cold Slicer.


	7. Chapter 6: Meet Cobra

**CHAPTER 6** (Author announcement doesn't count) **IS FINALLY HERE. AND I FINALLY GOT SOME REVIEWS. NOW I WON'T HAVE TO EAT ANYBODY'S KIDS. This one was took some time and will see future tweaks. RR PLEASE.****  
**

* * *

"Hey." He simply said with no emotion. Which showed that his speech was probably different from his brother's.

Kenshin decided to speak, "Ummm were honored to meet you Sir Cobra." The swordsman stated as he, Kaoru, Yahiko and Tokio bowed, leaving a sneering Saitou and a frowning Sanosuke just standing straight.

"He's pretty big to be your little brother." Sano smirked stating the obvious.

"I know Master Sagara. That's why I said younger." The king said, pointing his finger up and smiled.

"I'm Sanosuke Sagara!" He boastfully introduced himself extending his bandaged hand.

_'Moron.'_ Saitou thought.

He took the human's hand and shook it lightly with his cold and calloused one.

"A pleasure." He merely responded with barely any emotion and pulled his hand away from the street fighter.

_'So this is the guy huh? The guy that killed those men and fought Saitou. Yet he appears tranquil. Though Kenshin and the rest here probably haven't even realized who he Saitou looks rather eager.' _Sanosuke mused.

Kenshin and the others, except for Saitou and Sanosuke, shuddered inwardly when they saw Cobra's coal colored irises that silently told them 'cold blooded killer'.

However his charcoal face had a bored look on it that didn't go unnoticed.

There was an awkward silence for a good 30 seconds until Kaoru decided to break it, "So Sir Cobra-"

"I'd prefer you did not call me 'Sir' Cobra. Lt. Cobra is fine or just Cobra." The demon slowly said and even equally slowly, rolled his black eyes towards her.

Yahiko blinked before coming into realization, "Cobra? Wait you're the guy that-"

"Killed 150 men in three minutes? Yeah that's me." He said nonchalantly.

Kenshin and Kaoru's eyes widened after the demon's confession. Tokio turned ghostly white and muttered, "He spared Hajime."

"I thought that might've been you." Sanosuke said, "You killed those men with some type of multiple bladed weapon."

The demon raised his barely visible brow. "Your are correct street fighter."

The demon king pondered. "I suppose someone has been speaking about you brother. Someone that you most likely had spared on the beaches of our country."

"You're the man that spared my husband!" Tokio exclaimed, a littlle bit too loudly.

Several people, demon and human, around them stopped talked and turned to see what the fuss was all about. Tokio blushed from embarrassment. She mentally scolded herself for saying that louder than what she had planned on.

One demon who was standing a few feet away held a glass of red wine in his hand and wore beige suit and red tie. He had a lean frame, but his head was gray with a strong, wide bony chin and heavy cheek bones. He had short blonde hair and two long horns coming out of his head.

"The mighty Cobra spares another one of his victims."

Saitou growled at the beast for calling him a victim. Sanosuke and Yahiko snickered, Kaoru placed a hand on the police wife's shoulder, and Kenshin just Oroed at the comment his rival received.

Cobra squinted his eyes at the cop. "You again? And I don't recall of ever having a victim."

"Yep. We meet again a second time Lt. Cobra. And I'm no one's victim."

"Cobra do you know Mr. Fujita, or at least remember him?" The king asked, already aware of Saitou and Cobra's first encounter.

"A little. I did fight you didn't I? Before meeting you again at that cease fire conference in Thessaly? And your full name was-"

"I'm Goro Fujita of the police department. And yes Cobra we started a fight that-"

"Your Hajime Saitou. Former Captain of the third squad of the Shinsengumi. Believer in the Aku Soku Zan philosophy, slay evil immediately. And master of the Gatotsu technique." He snapped his eyes at him in seriousness.

Saitou grinned, "Oh that's quite impressive. You actually knew who I was from the start?"

Cobra shrugged, "No not really. Just did some comprehensive research on you. The MNIB is incredible with obtaining information. That's Multinational Intelligence Bureau. Its a covert/spying operations department."

"Well. I guess there are some things my beloved husband can't hide." Tokio remarked.

Cobra had a look of interest in his eyes. "I wouldn't have guessed that you were married Mr. Saitou."

"What are you saying?" Saitou asked.

"At the armistice signing, you were staring at me half time..." He partly explained.

Saitou raised an eyebrow. "Yeah and?"

"I was beginning to think that you were gay."

A yellow vain pulsated off of the cops head after hearing that. Sanosuke, Kaoru, and Yahiko snickered as Tokio giggled at her husband's embarrassment. While Kenshin just oroed and sweat dropped and Ebenezer raised his eyebrows.

Saitou then proceeded to slowly unsheathe his sword, but Ebenezer placed his hand on the hilt of the half drawn sword.

"My brother was only assuming." The king said reassuringly.

Cobra put his hands up defensively. "Yeah and besides I got nothing against gays. I mean a few of my superiors are like that. And I myself was curious once or twice in my life."

The five humans snapped their attention towards the demon and said in unison, "Excuse me?"

"Hey don't question my scarce morality. As a monster and a killer, my rights to question another's morality is limited."

"Hmmm. You might have a point Lt. Cobra, that you do." Kenshin gazed at the soldier.

Cobra set his sights towards the short swordsman who felt a little cold again under dark his gaze. "Who are you?"

"Kenshin Himura a wanderer."

"Your Battousai the Manslayer." The demon stated.

_'Here we go again.'_ Kaoru's mind said in frustration.

_'Another demon kindly mentioning Kenshin's past.'_ Yahiko inwardly said.

"Tell me Battousai, how great were the achievements you earned before you became the poor sap that owns a beating stick?" His tone a little mockingly harsh.

The tall demon received a combined of shock turned glares from Kenshin's friends for insulting his vow. Saitou on the other hand, for the thousandth time, just smirked at his all too familiar attitude.

_'Well,'_ Sano thought. _'Looks like we met a demon that's not that friendly.'_

"Brother! We shall talk of war and non war stories later." The king scolded.

Cobra bowed his head, "My apologies big brother."

"Yeah ugly Kenshin's not a murderer like you anymore!" Yahiko glared.

Cobra snapped his head up and looked down at the young swordsman apprentice. "Murderer? Such a big word from such a small child."

"I am not a child!" Yahiko glared at the monster. "I'm the Samurai of Tokyo!" He proudly declared.

Cobra studied the boy for a moment before making his analysis, "You're physical characteristics tell me otherwise, but the wooden sword on your back and the fire in your eyes tell me that you might have the basic understandings of fighting but not the ramifications of being a warrior or a soldier."

"Huh?" Yahiko looked confused.

Sanosuke narrowed his eyes and leaned towards Saitou and whispered, "Somethins' tellin' me that that this guy has killed a lot more in his life."

Cobra knelt down to have a closer look at the boy. "I'm gonna give you the short version of this lecture by saying that as a warrior myself, I was merely performing my soldierly duties on the beaches in my country. The same goddamn thing I've been doin' for most of my life." He explained as he flicked something off his broad shoulder.

"Was that 'something' the future?" Saitou whispered back with a sneer.

Yahiko was still confused.

Kenshin, who had been listening to the other two, spoke up, "He's saying, Yahiko, that taking lives is part of being a warrior, no matter which culture he or she may belong to. That's what Cobra is trying to explain, that he is."

Cobra stood back up into his original position. "Correct Manslayer. As it was your duty during the revolution."

Kaoru then spoke up, "But despite the negatives of being a soldier, Kenshin told me the other day that you didn't have to kill those men, and I agree with him."

"Yeah I didn't _have_ to but I did. Oh and for you brother." Cobra reached out from himself musette bag an envelope and handed it to his brother. The king thanked him and put it in his coat.

"I'll shall take my leave now." Cobra said.

"I look forward to having dinner with you Lt. Cobra." Kenshin said to the soldier.

"So do I Manslayer." Cobra said and waled away from the group. And an uncertain swordsman.

"I don't like him." Yahiko coldly stated.

"Don't care kid, but ya better get used to me!"

"Grrr creep."

Ebenezer waved his hand at the young samurai. "Now now Master Yahiko, he was only speaking his mind. Every man and women should be able to speak freely without fear of persecution." The king said in all honestly.

"Still he had no right of speaking that way to Kenshin as though if he was still a manslayer." Kaoru said. She was annoyed that Lt. Cobra insulted the beliefs of the man she loved and was courting.

"Yeah!" Her apprentice agreed, who was equally miffed that his idol and mentor was called a manslayer.

"Young Mistress Kamiya and Young master Yahiko, you're loyalty towards Mr. Himura is quite honorable and noble. For you Mr. Himura have a fine surrogate family that is strong, loyal, and compassionate."

"You're giving me unnecessary credit. I just saved then from internal and external dangers, that I did."

"Indeed. But may I offer you a fact or two about my brother Mr. Himura?"

Kenshin raised a brow. "You may."

"Ebenezer?!" Called out a similar accented voice belonging to a woman.

A woman that appeared to be in her late 30s, with long blonde hair tied up in a bun, and wearing a red, long sleeve, victorian style dress approached the group. She stopped right next to warm smiling Ebenezer. The woman ideas shorter than him. Around Kenshin and Kaoru's heights.

"Ahh there she is. My guardian from heaven. Everyone this is my wife Helena, youngest daughter of the great Zhatufüss family. Small, yet wealthy farming town they come from."

The five humans bowed to the queen.

"Ebenezer stop boasting me. We didn't marry out of seeking power or wealth." The woman scolded.

"No your right my dear. I married you because I was afraid of your wrath if I did not. Hahahaha!"

Everyone else chuckled at the statement.

"Yes because it worked with the willing yet unsuccessful help from Nikolai and Jacques (zak) and the great reluctant, last minute assistance from your brother." The queen countered.

Ebenezer waved his hand. "Lets talk about this later my love. This is Kenshin Himura, head of the Kenshin group, and from what I hear the 14th master of a god like style of swordsmanship. His special friend Kaoru Kamiya, assistant master of the Kamiya Kasshine style of swordsmanship and her apprentice Yahiko Myojin."

Helena smiled and bowed. "Honored to meet you three."

Kenshin took Helena's hand and kissed it. "Pleasure is mine, that it is Mrs. Forrgon."

Kaoru felt a 'little' jealous of Kenshin's actions.

The queen smiled again. "I'm flattered."

Ebenezer nodded. "Indeed. And this other young man with the rooster like hair is Master Himura's best friend and right strong arm man, Sanosuke Sagara."

"Sano for short your highness." Sanosuke added.

Helena nodded and smiled genuinely at Sano. "Now who is this lovely lady and this other tall handsome gentleman?" She asked gesturing to the Saitou's.

Tokio smiled brightly at the queen. "I'm Tokio Saitou and this is my husband Hajime."

Saitou tipped his hat and gave off one of his Goro Fujita smiles.

The queen raised an eyebrow. "I find it odd that one of Mr. Himura's friends owns a rather conspicuous look." She said commenting on Saitou's facial features.

Ebenezer's smile dropped and was replaced by frown. He raised his hand, getting everyone's attention.

"The word 'friend' would most likely be an... overstatement between Mr. Himura and Mr. Saitou, Helena. Would rivals be the appropriate relationship title between the two of you?" He asked with hesitation in his voice.

Hajime grinned with interest at the great king. "How did you know your Demonic Highness."

Ebenezer's frown turned into a stern look. He walked up to the taller police officer and stopped to stare into his amber eyes with his blazing red ones.

"Never underestimate the powers of the Demon race. Especially it's Cobran king." His tone was rather dark, that made the other humans shiver.

Saitou smirked in amusement. "I'll keep that in mind."

The King turned back to the spot next to his wife. "And also, do not smirk half the time."

It was the first time in Ebenezer's life since he saw anyone crash to the floor with sweat drops.

* * *

**ORIGINAL SCENE**

"Indeed. And this young man with the rooster like hair is Master Himura's best friend and right strong arm man, Sanosuke Sagara. His other good friend Hajime Saitou, or Goro Fujita as an alias, of the police and his wife Tokio."

"With all due respect your Highness, but the Battousai and I are arch rivals that have to settle a sco-"

"Master Saitou! I don't know what Master Himura has done as Battousai the Manslayer. For now it is none of my business. But you killing him would be destroying a national hero, a foundation. Him killing you would be taking away a great swordsman and a husband and father.

"Your point?"

"Hn. You're smart you should figure it out." He shrugged.

* * *

"Ebenezer love, my apologies but I have to steal you away from your new friends for now. For the-"

The King interrupted his wife, followed by a change of his mood. "For the Captains of Industry are here and-"

"Wish to see you? Yes."

Ebenezer had a displeased look on his face. "Oh bother. Those damned Vikings! Just because I have been implementing economic reforms for more than 30 years now, doesn't mean major businesses can come to me as they please and ask me to grant them their special interests and cheat on their workers and slowly turn our government into a god damned corporate bordello!"

Kenshin was surprised at the mild anger that the king was exhibiting. Saitou on the other hand was amused at the demon king's displeasure.

"Ebenezer your language! And your attitude! Fix them both!" The queen scolded.

"My apologies good people. Well my friends I bid thee well till to-night at seven for dinner."

"We look forward to it." Kaoru said.

Ebenezer smiled, showing his teeth and fangs. "As do I Miss Kaoru. Oh and here Master Battousai."

The demon king reached into his coat and pulled out three rectangular objects and handed them to Kenshin.

"Oro? Books?"

"Books indeed my friend. Translated into your language."

"Oro? Lazy... fairy?"

"Hahahah! Laissez-faire my scarred friend. A theoretical economics book."

"Oro? Comu-nice?"

"Communist my new friend, communist. The Communist Manifesto, written in 1848 by German political theorist and radical Karl Marx. And the Federalist Papers from Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison."

"I thank you for these gifts great king, that I do." Kenshin bowed before stuffing the books into his gi.

"That I do? You have quite the way of speaking Master Kenshin. Along with this 'Oro' word."

"As do you king." Kenshin complimented.

"We have something in common. Now before I make my departure from you and your friends I shall offer my services to you. Feel free, all of you, to come to me for any reasonable requests or assistances that you might seek or ask from me. And to the extent of my time and abilities I shall work on those said requests."

"None of us don't know what to say King Ebenezer." Kaoru said.

"That's something you said isn't it? Fare thee well for now."

_'Morons.'_ Saitou inwardly scoffed

"Hey King!" Sano called out.

Ebenezer and Helena stopped and turned towards the infamous street fighter, as did the rest of the group. "Do you have question that you would like to ask Master Sagara and recieve an answer that would be the most satisfactory to you?"

"I guess. It's about your brother." He hesitated to ask Ebenezer about his brother, for it was rather... personal.

The king sensed the human's discomfort and inwardly sympathized with him. "Ask away."

* * *

"Damn. He was that young?" Sano asked, after asking a question about Cobra, three minutes prior.

"Now I'm even more interested." Declared a grinning Saitou. _'That monster clearly shares my beliefs on Aku Soku Zan. Even if he was an eight year old at the time.'_

_'Even a child that commits murder to save the defenseless is still unnecessary.' _Kenshin sorrowfully thought._  
_

_'I feel kinda bad for the guy.' _Thought Kaoru, Yahiko, and Tokio in inward unison.

The king and his wife bided farewell walked away from the group and disappeared into the background.

"Don't look now but that guy is coming this way again. That Cobra guy!" Yahiko said.

Cobra scowled at Yahiko. "Kid my name's Cobra, not 'guy' or that Cobra guy. Now if all of you would follow me to the one of two places you'll be sleeping in."

* * *

Not a great ending. I had to omit a lot of things. So what did you think about Cobra.

Here's a future quote from him: As long as there is life, there is war.

From Ebenezer: Just because one country is at peace, doesn't mean that all of their problems are solved and the suffering of their people has ceased.


	8. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7 HERE. THOUGH IT STILL HAS HOLES THAT NEED FIXING, AND MORE STUFF THAT NEED TO BE ADDED. I'LL MAKE IT BETTER LATER. R&R IN THE MEAN TIME.**

* * *

2nd Lieutenant Cobra Venomous Forrgon lead the five humans he met a second time, one of them the third, to the their arranged sleeping quarters they'd have to share for the time being. While doing so, the Demonic soldier received the brief introductions from Kaoru, Yahiko, and Tokio. And the insults from an impulsive young apprentice.

They left the partially crowded party floor, and took to the stairs, and into a large, well-lit, beautifully decorated wooden hallway. There were large paintings on the walls, either of Japanese, European, or American origins. There was even a few environmental themed paintings from Cobreiny. The lieutenant barely heard the brief comments and statements from the group about the artwork, as he was giving them their mini tour.

A pair of very narrow amber eyes looked at a *16th century Italian painting of a beautiful young woman smiling. "Not really much of an art fan." Stated Saitou with an unlit cigarette in his mouth.

Kenshin flashed his rival with his one of wanderer smiles and said, "We'll Saitou you could use a little culture in your life for once, that you do."

Saitou stopped walking, as did the rest of the group, and glared at his rival in return. "What I _could_ use Battousai, is something that can light this goddamned fucking cigarette in my mouth!" He yelled at the sweat dropping swordsman as he pointed a gloved finger to the object in said mouth.

The other three had to stifle their giggles, lest they feel the wrath of Saitou's Gatotsu. Apparently Saitou was in this dilemma, for his lovely wife had confiscated his matches, since she had an understandable dislike of her husband's smoking habit.

Tokio stood with her fists on her hips and glaringly said, "I could take you cigarettes away."

Saitou just signed in defeat while Tokio smiled in victory and placed a kiss on his right cheek. The Wolf of Mibu, was just subdued by the words of his wife.

Yahiko giggled at Saitou's humiliation only to be silenced by the police officer's death glare.

The wolf swordsman took one step forward, only to feel an unknown force lightly pressed into his sternum. He looked down and saw the demon's right hand, with its black, index and middle finger nails, with his thumb extended out to the side, were what stopped him from returning on the tour.

Saitou looked up into the demon's, expressionless, coal colored face, about why he had his claws pointing into the middle of his chest.

Sanosuke felt a little nervous when he saw the Demon soldier's black nails, since those would've shredded his hand up when they shook each other's hands.

Just as the police officer was about to ask, Cobra slowly brought his hand up from the humans chest, to foot away from his face. He pressed his index claw into his thumb claw and...

FLICK. SSSSS.

A little fire, was burning off of Cobra's thumb claw. Much to everyone's shock. But Cobra, effortlessly, maintained his neutral expression as though it was nothing.

"I believe you said that you needed a light, is that correct Mr. Saitou?"

Saitou didn't answer, but he snapped out of his surprised state and quickly removed the cigarette from his mouth and lit it from the fuse emitting off of the demon's thumb. He took a long puff from the drag, before blowing out the smoke into the demon's face.

"Thanks for the light." He muttered.

"Every man should enjoy his smoke."

"Spoiler." Tokio quietly spat as her irritation grew.

Cobra didn't respond. Instead he pulled out a cigar from one of the small punches on his utility belt, that was right above his regular belt. He brought it to his still burning thumb nail, and lit it before blowing it out.

Kenshin watched this all unfold from the moment Cobra lit his thumb. As he saw the scene with wide eyes, his mind began to ask questions about the Demon race, and their powers. Especially the ones he and his friends had met.

He place it between his teeth and started his smoking session. He also took out two small cloth rags for the ashes, so they don't fall on the long, red carpet which they stood on.

"So..." Kaoru said quietly.

"What?" Cobra asked.

"Can all demons do what you just did?" She asked pointing at his hand.

He brought his clawed hand up to his face and stared at it intently. "Yes and no. Traditionally it has been the older demons that gain the ability to manipulate their demonic energy to make... certain actions even more possible. But now its those who get stronger."

Kaoru tilted her head as her curiosity grew. "Just how old?"

Cobra set his cold, black eyes on the 17-year-old ken-jutsu instructor, who shivered under his gaze. But she rephrased her question, "A-and how would they get s-stronger?" She stuttered a bit.

"Yeah and how old are you?" Sano asked.

He puffed on his cigar and blew out the smoke he held it between his index and middle fingers as he collected his thoughts.

_'Don't know if this is even allowed, but I'll take my chances. Or fully answer later.' _The smoking demon thought.

"I won't go into detail, but I'm 78."

That shocked everyone expect for Saitou and Sanosuke.

"Old and weird as he is ugly." Yahiko said aloud. Which was also the seventh time he call him ugly. Everyone else, especially Kaoru, were greatly surprised that his only was response was, "If you say so." After blowing out some smoke from his cigar, followed by continuing their tour.

Every time. Every time Yahiko called him ugly, he would just blow it off, and would not cease to surprise most of the group.

"I find myself quite surprised on how you maintain your tranquility Lt. Forrgon, that I am." Kenshin said.

Cobra stopped and turned halfway to face Kenshin. "Why do you say that Battousai?" He asked with his cigar shaking up and down in his mouth.

"Yahiko has insulted you several times now, in the same way he insults his teacher Miss Kaoru, that he has. Normally he would end up with a bump or two on his head for such things, that he would."

Cobra responded in a low voice,"Well Manslayer it would be a waste of time and energy if I was to fret about things that were abysmal in terms of importance." He turned and continued walking as so did the others.

"Yeah well I don't like you." Yahiko said stating the obvious.

"Lot of people do for no reason." He shrugged, showing his lack of care or interest of the subject.

"Maybe it's cause they think you're a psychotic killer!" Yahiko shot out.

"Killing out of pleasure is psychotic, killing for defending your nation is another story."

"I still think you're a psycho." Yahiko retorted.

Cobra looked at Yahiko as if he was... well he wasn't sure. "Kid... just how stupid are you?"

"What was that?!" Yahiko shot him blank pointy angry eyes.

A nervous Kenshin lightly waved his hands. "Now now Yahiko-"

"I asked you how stupid-"

"I heard what you said!"

"Then why did you ask when I asked you how stupid you are?"

"Because he is stupid.'' Sanosuke declared.

"Why you-"

"Enough already!" Demanded Saitou with a visible yellow vein on the top of his head.

Cobra began to finish this argument, "Kid if I was psychotic, I would've already killed you."

Yahiko surely felt stupid after that. "Oh... but I still think you-"

Yahiko was interrupted again for something important. Something that none of them will forget.

*"I have committed many acts of cruelty, and have had an incalculable amount of men and beasts killed. Never knowing of what I do is right, and perhaps I never will, but despite my actions, I am indifferent to what people may think of me."

"So," Kaoru began. "in other words, you're neither proud or ashamed... of your life. Is that what you're trying to say more or less?"

Cobra blew out some smoke and tapped the cigar ashes onto the cloth, before placing it back into his mouth. "Right you are."

"Then why did you spare Saitou?" Kenshin asked. "Could it be that your feeling some form of regret after killing those men?"

"I don't spare those I never had the intention to kill in the first place."

Kenshin sweat dropped and hung his head.

"Oro. Is that a yes or a no."

"No."

"Then why did you spare him?" Kaoru asked

"His skills were impressive and his courage was moronic."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Saitou glaringly said as he tapped his ashes onto his cloth.

Kenshin just shook his head. "I give up."

"However... I do feel that some of atonement is needed. For the blood shed that recently took place was the result of misunderstanding that could've been avoided."

Cobra closed his eyes and smirked but dropped

"Anyway... what do you think of yourself?" Sanosuke asked

"Huh?"

"You basically said you don't care what people think of you. What do ya think-"

"An alcoholic, chain-smoking, killing machine wearin' a military uniform."

Tokio leaned towards Kaoru and whispered, "Your student is right Miss Kaoru. This is a weird demon."

Kaoru just nodded in return.

* * *

After five minutes, the group came across a long, inner balcony that went around a small courtyard. The floor of the balcony was made of marble and the railings were made of stone columns.

Kaoru squinted her eyes at the opposite end of the balcony across the courtyard. The walls were of the typical traditional Japanese style on that part, unlike the solely wood or marbled walls. "Those must be our rooms over there."

Cobra stopped suddenly and faced the group and blew some smoke from the cigar again. "By the way, after some... negligence... you're gonna have to share those rooms."

"We know." They all said in unison.

Cobra put out his cigar and threw into the courtyard.

"But," Kenshin began to try to make it easier for then, "your older brother did say we would at least have some large western beds to make up for any problems with sharing, that he did."

"Yeah but the fact that we all have to share these beds is a bit of a problem." Sanosuke said.

"What do you mean WE have a problem with sharing the beds? I'm sharing mine with my wife moron, I got nothing against it." Saitou said as he held his nose high.

"You should Hajime, because we probably won't get... our alone time if were sharing a room." Tokio complained.

"Damn." Saitou's head fell.

"Ouch, tough luck Saitou." Mocked Sano.

"Yeah creep." Yahiko muttered.

Cobra stared at the couple. "Uhhh I can lend you mine if you two need to get busy."

"What?!" They all asked, except for Yahiko who looked rather confused, in unison with saucer wide eyes.

"If you two need to get... 'busy', feel free to use my room." He said pointing at an adjacent part of the balcony, where two western doors could be seen on a stone wall.

"...and I do admit there's nothing much to it. Just a cot, a table with three chairs, a barrel of water, and an amphora of wine."

Tokio snapped out of her thoughts and turned towards the soldier with a small hint of red on her face. "Oh... w-well we a-appreciate that Lt. Cobra, b-but wouldn't that be invading your privacy?"

"No." The demon simply said.

Saitou smirked at Cobra's answer. "You're a generous creature Forrgon. First my life, the cigarette, and this 'loan'." He said using the voice of his Fujita persona. Which quirked one of Cobra's, nearly invisible eyebrows in surprise to hear this sudden change of tone of voice.

"Whose says I'm bein' generous Mr. Saitou. I admit I maybe ignorant on the functions of a romantic relationship, and ignorant on the definition of romantic..."

They all sweat dropped at that last statement.

"... but if your mate invites you to explore her honey pot for a few minutes you should be able to get between her-"

"ORO!? Can we not talk about this in front of Yahiko?!" Pleaded a sweat dropping Kenshin.

Sanosuke waved his bandaged hand. "Eh don't worry about it. He took off when he saw that Eiji kid talkin' to Tsubame. Gotta hand it to him, he's even more open with his feelings than Kenshin is with the Missie."

"Your not open with Miss Kaoru, Sir Kenshin?!" Tokio asked with wide eyes.

"Oro?!" His eyes bulged out of their sockets. Both he and Kaoru blushed madly at the question.

Sano just popped his neck on both sides and placed his hands in his coat pockets. "Yeah and they've been living together for half a year now."

Tokio got into Kenshin's face and waved her finger in front of his eyes and put on the sternest facial expression.

"That is unacceptable Mr. Himura. You may of already started courting..."

As Tokio went with her lecturing, Saitou walked up to the slightly taller demon and asked him, "By the way is your room generally open for us or just for the quickies?"

Cobra shifted his eyes and raised a brow for a second, before going back to Tokio's lecture. "The quickie. Just tell me when you need to use it, I got a personal studies right next to it as I've been told."

"Will do. And I promise not to kill you so as long as you don't interrupt or spy on us." He finished the conversation, switching back to his 'normal' persona before he reprimanded his wife, and told her that she can torture the Battousai later.

Sano stared intently at Cobra and thought to himself, _'What the hell is up with this guy?! First he acts like a fuckin' jackass, then a weirdo, and now he's spoon-feeding the creep of the century! I-'_

"Get moving moron!"

"Grrrrr! I'm gonna get you one day Saitou!"

"Whatever you say moron." He flicked his burned out cigarette into the courtyard.

"Stop calling me a moron you asshole!"

"Alright chicken head."

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

Tokio just sighed and rolled her eyes.

_'What an interesting group. I wonder what the rest is like.'_ Cobra's mind wondered.

"Jeez Sanosuke! What's with the noise?!" Misao called out as she slid open one of the shojis and stepped out onto the balcony.

The female ninja's question was silently answered when she noticed Officer Creep smirking at the sizzling waves radiating from Sano's head.

She put two and two together and made her conclusion, "Oh."

Just then Tae stepped out with a mischievous smile that was directed to Kenshin and Kaoru, which Kaoru took immediate notice of and DID NOT LIKE IT, including the brief one on Misao's face until she informed them that Tsubame and the children were keeping Aoshi company.

"So what took you guys so long?" Tae asked.

"Oh we met the Great Demon King Ebenezer and some of his close friends Miss Tae, that we did."

"Whats he like?" Tae asked.

"Like Mr. Himura only with a beard." Tokio teased the oroing swordsman.

"Hey whose this big guy?" Misao asked gesturing towards Cobra after noticing him standing there with his hands behind his back.

Kenshin introduced Cobra to the two, "Oh this is 2nd Lt. Cobra, that he is."

Tae noticed Cobra too and asked with a smile, "Oh are you the king's handsome younger brother?"

Cobra let out a snort like growl, and widened his eyes at the question. Normally, throughout his life, he's been called a variety of names like monster, murderer, Satan, the Anti-Christ which he humorously found more than welcoming, Vlad the Impaler Reborn including a few other Dracula related names or terms, and more recently ugly. But he has received many complements throughout his life, half of them from Ebenezer who threw no insult at him.

"Uhhh I guess." He sounded uncertain and confused.

"You guess? Teeheehee. I'm sorry if I made ya uncomfortable Lieutenant."

"There's nothing to forgive madam."

Misao raised an eye brow at the 8'6 creature that stood before her and the female restaurant manager, who was speaking to what several different newspapers were calling him.

"He must be a very heroic soldier in his country." Misao said.

"I see myself as a common soldier who willfully does his duties, for the people and the top people in power, no more and no less."

Kenshin, who was directly listening to the conversation with Kaoru, Sano and the Saitou's, was surprised greatly by the crude mannered demon's display of humility.

Kaoru listened,_ 'As much as hate to admit it, his humility reminds me of Kenshin, even though he is a weird jerk like Saitou.'_

_'A jackass killer that humble.'_ Sano thought.

_'If only Hajime was like that.' _Tokio mused.

"For someone whose so humble, and yet so powerful from what we've heard, you must do a lot your big brother tells ya." Tae suggested.

Cobra raised his brow and made is response, "I follow Ebenezer's orders without question, unless my judgment say's otherwise."

The word 'judgment' caught Misao's ears. Last weeks visit from Yamagata and that scrawny demon named Varrooshka, spoke briefly about the Forrgon, and based off of Yamagata's translation he said,_ 'The kings younger brother uses his judgment in battle.' _Which referred to Saitou's life being spared. The gears in her brain that were already turning, sped up in realization.

Misao snapped out of her collection of thoughts and attempted blurt them out into words, only to be interrupted by a German accent.

"Vell, vell Cobra seems that I've managed to find you after all."

They all turned and saw Frederick Heissler, accompanied by Megumi, a bruised Yahiko followed by a less bruised up Eiji. Both had bandages. And both of them were carrying their splintered bokkens, and both look embarrassed. Eiji's light grey short sleeve gi had a few tears as a result from fighting Yahiko, while his dark blue hakama was unharmed, while Yahiko's clothing was still completely intact, but his body wasn't really.

Sanosuke chuckled at the battered sight of Yahiko, wishing he had seen it.

Saitou smirked and guessed at what happened between the two. He was rather pleased knowing that Yahiko got a taste of his own medicine. Kaoru placed her hands on her hips and shook her head at her reckless apprentice. Tokio walked to Megumi and thanked her for her work and apologized for any trouble.

Megumi coyly smiled and waved her hand. "Don't worry Mrs. Tokio, its only natural for boys their age to fight over girls they like. Even though Eiji said he was just talking to Tsubame."

"Huh, I guess this Eiji kid of yours Mr. Saitou needs to brush up on his swordsmanship." Cobra said as he noticed the look on the Saitou, and the motherly concern Tokio was giving to Eiji.

Eiji didn't say anything for he already knew who this soldier was, and knew that he spoke the truth.

Kenshin oroed when he saw the man or wolf demon and remembered him from the other day."Sir Heissler? Uhhh guten tag."

"Guten tag to you as vell Herr Himura. Und Cobra... how many people, in total, have you killed?" His voice sounded with irritation.

Everyone, except for a grinning Saitou, flinched at the question and they all stared at him, expecting in vain for a small number.

Sano narrowed his at the two demons, wondering why he would ask a sensitive question. _'I doubt he'll be uncomfortable.'_

When he answered Saitou's face grew the biggest insane grin, while everyone else gasped loudly as they were shocked to the core.

"31,856. Why do you ask o' wolf demon?"

"So I can inform the polizei to not vorry over you. Or any potential cases of rape."

"Oh so that was you stopped those 6 men from raping that girl." Saitou said.

"Aku Soku Zan, Mr. Saitou." He shrugged at the smirking cop.

Kenshin put 2 and 2 together, but feared the worst.

"What happened to those 6 men mentioned." He asked with no hint of fear in his voice.

The 78-year-old demon paralyzed Kenshin with his black stare. "I killed them Battousai. I slaughtered them like cattle. I have no regrets for my actions."

Kenshin was at a loss of words. He felt relief for the woman was kept from having her virtue tainted, but he felt sorrow for the men that were killed, on the spot. But he decided not to show his weakness to the demon.

"Lt. Cobra! Lt. Cobra! We found a company of hostiles in the forest! Consisting of goblins, tiger demons, and humans!" A small Cobreinian soldier said as he ran towards the smaller demon.

_'Looks like that bastard's war is slowly approaching. Better tell Ebenezer to be prepared.'_ Cobra thought.


	9. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8 is here, and sooner then anyone would suspect. Its got a little taste of investigative drama and more humor, hopefully. Rather short actually, but hey. READ AND REVIEW PLEASE.

* * *

Frederick Heissler, the wolf demon from Prussia now called Germany, stood silently as he waited for the Cobreinian private to catch his breathe after running for who knows how long. Behind the demonic captain, stood Tokio Saitou, Megumi Takani, Yahiko Myojin, and Eiji Mishima, with wide eyes and ears ready to hear some troubling news. On the other side was Hajime, Sanosuke, Kenshin, and Kaoru. In the middle stood Tae, Misao, and the three foreign demons.

The soldier that was running, stood before Frederick Heissler and Cobra Forrgon while lightly flailing his arms about as he told the told story while he was with his patrol they spotted what looked liked to be either hooligans or highwaymen, based on the unpleasant sounds and uncivil behavior that caught their attention. They observed the group whilst hiding in trees and bushes, and to their horror when they saw goblin weaponry.

"Goblins? What are goblins?" Kaoru asked with concern.

"Goblins," Cobra began while searching for the best description, "are these little creepy pieces of shit from another world that are bred for causing evil and mischief. Pretty much our nation's common enemy, or rather a common nuisance."

Saitou smirked in amusement.

"How many hostiles are zere soldier?" Frederick asked.

The soldier standing at attention quickly responded, "So far Captain, we found 230! 50 of which are tiger demons."

Cobra held his chin between his right index finger and thumb. "Colors or any banners?"

"A Green flag with a three-headed black dragon and in one of its claws had a sword and the other a rifle, sir."

Cobra looked to the ground, as if trying to figure something out. "Armaments?"

"Plated armor, swords, bows, spears, and antiquated small arms."

Kenshin stepped up next to the foreign soldier. "Who else have you told?"

The soldier blinked in uncertainty about why this unknown civilian would involve himself in military affairs, so he hesitated to answer until Cobra ordered him to do so.

"Yeah you better knucklehead, if you know what's good for ya." Misao threatened.

"My apologies, but I informed Cobreinian officer Cpt. Khrushota, Japanese Major Sasuke Nishiwagi, and I'm looking for Achilles Papandreou, sir!"

"Papandreou?" Misao whispered to Tae. "That's a weird name."

Tae nodded her head.

Saitou stepped forward and asked how many are under Nishiwagi's scouting party. His answer was at least 420 of Japanese and foreign troops and Cpt. Khruschota was leading a party of 370.

A black eyed Yahiko blinked at the Cobrian name that was mentioned.

"Khruschota? Hey he's that guy with the metal face from last week when old man Yamagata came buy! Megumi do you think he's okay to fight?" The boy asked looking up at the fox lady.

Megumi opened her mouth to answer but Cobra answered for her instead, "You underestimate a member of the demon race kid."

Frederick looked up at Cobra then back at the other soldier. "Danke Cobra. You are dismissed private vonce you inform the Kaiser."

The soldier saluted and jumped off the balcony and landed feet first into the courtyard and ran out of sight.

Cobra took a few small steps forward to the short swordsman and humanized demon. "Hmmm... despite being poorly equipped, it seems that they might be working for a large organized group. The Tigerans have shown their dissatisfaction with the Demon Empire, just like the Bullians and the Bat demons from Mexico. That's one piece of evidence."

"Interesting," Kenshin began, "it seems that the demon race is not that different from humanity in terms of unity." He said solemnly referring to the tiger demons that were designated as hostile, and the other mentioned tribes.

"Zat is sadly correct Herr Himura. I don't vhy tigers vould join goblins und other Drakoens but ve can't question that now."

"I wonder," Kaoru began with sorrow in her tone, "if this is a great struggle for Ebenezer."

The wolf and snake demon both nodded without the use of words.

Cobra then clenched his fists and let out a low animalistic growl. "This is becoming more and more problematic. They mock our country, our king, and our race itself!" He finished bitterly.

Frederick gave orders to Cobra to investigate the area around Tokyo for any more hostile groups, but clearly told him not to engage them. Instead he was to report back within a few hours and have heavily armed patrols watching each group he finds.

Cobra looked a bit annoyed but he reluctantly agreed to stay his hand.

"Hmph. For a demon I thought you would've ordered your subordinate to have a little fun." Saitou grinned darkly.

Frederick turned to the tall police officer and met his amber eyes with his blue ones. "Und you are?"

"Just a fellow wolf from Mibu." He shrugged.

"You don't look like a volf."

Sano piped up, "Have you ever seen a wolf in sheep's clothing?"

Frederick looked at Sanosuke the back to the other man and narrowed his eyes as he studied Saitou for over for a minute.

"In the past ja, but in this case nein. Und I vould vant to know how much you know zis shvine."

Fox ears sprung up from Megumi's head as she slowly made her way to Cobra. "Oh Sir Fred you don't have to be so harsh to this handsome man. After all, I could give him the... proper reward if he behaves himself." She implied with a sultry tone and placing her finger under the snake demon's chin.

Kaoru sweat dropped at the scheme Megumi was intending to pull.

"Oro."

Tokio scowled at the behavior Megumi was displaying and in front of blushing young boys, who she had to place her hands over their eyes.

Sano, despite feeling a little jealous, raised an eyebrow. _'First Tae compliments this war dog, and now the fox is hittin' on him! Lucky son of a bitch.'_

Cobra reached up and grabbed Megumi's finger between his index and thumb and pulled it to the side and said, "I'm not really that much into human females. Sorry."

Megumi glared at the tall demon and snatched her hand away as she tossed her hair back. "Humph! Any sensible man would appreciate a woman's grace such as myself and not that sweaty tomboy, Raccoon girl!" She crossed her arms.

Before Kaoru's anger could even spike, Tokio stepped in and held her nose high as she strode across the way. "Well to be honest Miss Megumi, I find it rather ungraceful to act lecherous to a man who you don't even know." She shrewdly said as she walked between the confused demon and agitated fox and over to her husband.

Kaoru looked befuddled, but a wink from Tokio helped her understand.

Sanosuke raised an eyebrow and chuckled, "Damn the Wolf of Mibu's mate sure has a sharp tongue! Bet that's one of the reasons you married her, right Saitou?"

"I guess your less moronic that I thought." Saitou sneered at the ex-gangster.

Sanosuke smirked at the half assed compliment. _'Well I do have my moments you creep.'_

_'This really is an interesting group.' _Cobra thought.

"Oh and for the record Frederick, this Wolf of Mibu, he's also the sole the survivor from the 150 beach massacre." Cobra said.

"How odd zat you vould do that Cobra, but I shall not qfuestion you're judgment." The German wolf said.

_'What is this guy's judgment? That he would go so far and spare the demon Saitou?'_ Misao pondered.

"I'm curious," Kenshin began, "to know what exactly _is_ your judgment Lt. Cobra, that I DO!"

Kenshin was bowled over onto the wooden floor of the balcony by Ayame and Suzume crying out, 'Uncle Kenny your alive!' and snuggling into his chest repeating it three or four more times. Frederick gave out a warm-hearted laugh at the former manslayer that was just ambushed by the two little girls who feared that he may have been dead.

Saitou just shook his head at his rival while everyone else laughed, expect for a stone silent Aoshi that stepped out of the bedroom with a giggling Tsubame and an equally silent Lt. Cobra.

Aoshi and Cobra met each other's eyes for a silent moment, until they nodded their heads at each other and looked away.

"Mommy, Dadddy!" Akiko and Tsutomo shouted running to their parents.

Tokio held their daughter in her arms, while Hajime held their son in his.

"Did you have fun behave yourself with the other children?" Saitou asked in his Goro Fujita tone.

"Uhuh." They both nodded.

"Did you have fun with Uncle Aoshi?" Tokio asked.

"Uhuh, but he's no fun." Akiko pouted as she pointed at the silent ninja.

Tokio chuckled nervously at the statement her daughter made.

"Yes yes I'm alive Ayame and Suzume, that I am. But why wouldn't I be alive?"

Tae lowered herself and pat one of them on the head. "They were thinkin' that you have may have been eaten by their king Sir Ken."

They both looked at him with wide innocent eyes that still held some fear and uncertainty. Kenshin, upon seeing the expressions written in their eyes, felt a little sad, for he remember that when he returned to the dojo from his battle in Kyoto against Makoto Shishio, he felt even more guilty when he saw them.

Kenshin clearly remembered that day, the day he came back home after nearly loosing his life to save Japan, he was holding Kaoru's hand when she said three magical words, that he thought he would never hear in his life, 'Welcome home Kenshin.' And when he set foot on the dojo's grounds, he was bowled over by those same little girls, only with tears running down their cheeks.

"Was he nice to you Uncle Ken?" Ayame asked.

Kenshin snapped out of his thought

"Was scary king nice Uncle Kenny?" Suzume partly repeated the question.

Kaoru giggled and picked up Ayame from the knocked over swordsman and said, "He was more than nice to Kenshin, you kids. He was really friendly to us."

"That he was. And he wasn't scary at all, that he wasn't." Kenshin smiled and stood back up with Suzume in his arms.

"We also met his human wife." Sano said scratching his head.

"Oro? She was human?"

Sano just shrugged. "I think she was a Kretan. Had to be but I don't know."

"Is Auntie Tokio the police man's wife?" Suzume innocently asked.

"Thats right!" Tokio smilingly said.

Cobra walked up to the married couple that were holding the children and asked what are their names.

"Akiko and Tsutomo. Say hi to Mr. Cobra you two."

Akiko buried half of her face into her mother's shoulder showing she was shy.

Tsutomo although, humorously and adorably said, "I can't go be a soldier right now mister, I'm too little."

Everyone giggled at that statement.

Ayame blinked at the back of the soldier. "Auntie Kaoru whose that?"

"That's the King's little brother Ayame, but he's _not _nice."

Ayame and Suzume both gasped, but Kaoru reassured them he didn't try to hurt Kenshin.

Tsubame fidgeted realizing she was in the presence of someone who actively killed people, so she inched towards Sano for protection.

"Well I better go check out the enemy." Cobra declared as he jump up on the wooden balcony railing and crouched on it.

"Just remember your orders." Frederick said sternly.

"Right, search and destroy."

"Nein!"

"Fine, search the area and report to the patrols."

"Und report back at 0500 hours."

"Yes sir."

"Wait a minute Forrgon."

"Mr. Saitou?"

"Eiji go give him your sword."

"Uhh y-yes sir!" He ran inside one of the rooms and retrieved his Katana. It had a brown sheathe that looked brand new.

Eiji handed it to the demonic soldier and said, "Be careful with that. That was my big brother's before he was murdered."

"Thanks, but I'll use it if need be and I promise I'll bring it back in one peace."

He jump off the railing and landed on his feet on a tree branch 10 feet away, before jumping 15 feet onto the branch of another tree, before finally jumping 8 feet into the air on the roof and ran out of sight.

Misao was astonished at how that demon's muscular body was able to jump from tree to tree. After all she was ninja with a petite body, and that was soldier with a larger body.

A minute of passed after the snake demon left the premises, and just then a familiar Turkish accent caught everyone's attention. "So the Tigers have finally snapped and formally left the Brotherhood."

Kenshin immediately recognized the man. "Sir Yusuf?"

"Salaam again arkadaşım(my friend)."

"Hey Himura who is this guy with the two swords and his funny accent?" Misao asked.

Yusuf looked rather miffed. "I am Yusuf Karadeniz, and what I speak in is a Turkish accent young lady."

"Eh don't mind the weasel girl Yusuf." Sanosuke said.

A vein popped up from Misao's head and yelled, "DON'T CALL ME A WEASEL!"

"Weasel girl, weasel girl!" Tsutomo pointed at Misao.

Misao kept her mouth shut, for she knew if she did anything against the Wolf of Mibu's offspring... she would feel the wrath of his Gatotsu. Though she had never seen it, she'd rather not find out.

Saitou had a hard controlling his laughter, but a glare from his wife prompted him to give his son at least an insignificant scolding.

Yusuf reintroduced himself. "My name is Yusuf Karadeniz. The Turkish swordsman from the Ottoman Empire, that now proudly serves the powerful demon king."

Everyone else made their introductions to the Turk, and complimented his swords. Then the conversation went to the previous subject.

"Frederick, benim kurt arkadaşım (my wolf friend), what is the meaning of this form of aggression from the tigers. I understand an alliance with humans, but with those infernal goblin creatures from another world? Do they intend to start a bloody struggle?"

"I'm not sure Yusuf. But now lets not too vorked up about it. Ve have ze freiheit to discuss the details but no more zan that."

"I agree with Mr. Heissler Sir Yusuf, that I do. But we should at least stay on our toes for any signs of blood shed that will come about, that we should."

"Uncle Kenny?" Suzume asked.

Kenshin flinched when he sensed the fear building in the child he held in his arms and in Kaoru's, but he wasn't entirely sure why.

"What is it Suzume?"

"Your not gonna fight scary monsters are you?" She asked adorably.

Kenshin just smiled, "For now I don't really plan to do any fighting, that I do not. Now why don't you and Ayame play with the other kids with Tsubame, Yahiko and Eiji?" He asked as he and Kaoru set the children down as did the... other couple.

"Are you gonna play with us Uncle Ken?" Ayame asked.

"That I will, but I want to talk to my new friends first, that I do." He put his hands on Frederick's and Yusuf's shoulders.

"Okay." She scampered off with the other children and older kids down into the courtyard.

Tokio stepped forward, attempting to join the children, until her husband stopped and said, "Honey I think we need our alone time."

Tokio shrieked as her husband tossed her over his shoulder and carried her towards Cobra's room. Her face was redder than a tomato, but was laughing as she repeatedly hit her husband in the back with her fists and said, "Hajime Saitou put me down this instant! People are watching!"

Sanosuke grinned at the sight. "Go get yourself some Wolf of Mibu."

Yusuf couldn't help but smile. "Allah onların evlilik korusun. May Allah bless their marriage."

"WHAT IS THIS!?" Kaoru's voice called out.

"ORO!?"

Fox ears sprung up from a certain lady doctor's head. "Ohohohoho that must be the Raccoon girl talking about the bed. Misses Tae and Misao, good work."

"Thank you!" They said in unison.

Kenshin, Frederick, and Yusuf cautiously turned their heads towards the source of Kaoru's voice, which was coming from one of the rooms. The shoji was opened and could see everybody's favorite tomboy. Apparently Kaoru was standing in front of one of the western king sized beds at the end of said room. Her face was flushed with embarrassment. The trio of men slowly walked towards the swordswoman.

"Uhh Miss Kaoru, are you alright?" Kenshin asked.

They stopped three feet away from her highly disturbed form and on the bed they spotted a note with Japanese writing that caused Kenshin to oro, and the other two to have questioning looks.

Yusuf tapped Kenshin on the shoulder to gain his attention. "Um, afedersiniz (excuse me) Efendim (sir) Himura, but could you tell us what it says?"

A light blush crept up to the lightly scarred face of the nervous wandering swordsman who seemed rather hesitant to answer.

Frederick put two and two together based on the red faces, the mischief from the women outside, and the note on the bed and frowned at this conclusion.

"Zis is qvuite an interesting group." Frederick said aloud.

SOMEWHERE IN THE FOREST OUTSIDE OF TOKYO...

Cobra was jumping through trees, when all of a sudden he stopped on a branch and looked up into the blue sky and said, "For some reason I feel like I want to agree with Frederick about something. Eh I'll find out later." He said as he continued his mission through the woods.

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Okay not entirely finished, I may have some things to add here. Now I'm probably gonna make separate short LEMON for Hajime and Tokio, side story thing. The next chapter will mostly be Kenshin, Frederick, and Yusuf talking mostly about this new threat. Review please.


	10. Chapter 9

**I said that this chapter would mostly be Frederick, Kenshin, and Yusuf talking. That's half-true but... ****WARNING: BLOOD SHALL BE SPILT IN THIS CHAPTER. AND some RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE/Insensitiveness, AND REFERENCES of Hellsing. **

**I might change the rating from T to M soon if need be.**

**Yeah my ideas tend to bloom like a thousand flowers when I write. This one's rather lengthy. THIS WILL BE UPDATED BY TOMORROW. GOT SOMETHINGS TO ADD.**

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"Excuse me, Efendim Himura, could you tell us what the note says?"

"Oro? It says that this bed is reserved for Kaoru and Himura, that it does."

Frederick and Yusuf snapped their gazes towards each other with the same questioning looks stuck on their faces, unable to fully comprehend the situation they were witnessing.

"HAHAHAHAHA! This plan that I, Misao Makimachi, and Tae Sekihara put together to make Himura's and Kaoru's relationship move forward is-"

"Flawed." Sanosuke interrupted with an even voice, "How is that gonna advance their relationship if they're sharing a room with other people Weasel Girl? Is doesn't matter if they're sharing a bed, there's other people in the room."

As Sano was pointing out the flaws in the plan, Misao's smile fell as her eyes became beady in realization to the one major flaw.

Tae just sweat dropped and muttered that she completely forgot about the other beds, while Megumi's fox ears crumbled into dust. Sanosuke just leaned against the door frame, with Aoshi standing silently beside him, and shook his head.

"Und," Frederick added, "how can you be sure zat zis vould be beneficial to Herr Himura und Fräulein Kamiya-"

"Uhh Mr. Heissler?" Kenshin interrupted as he became nervous, "Please let me handle this."

"If you insist." The demon shrugged.

"M-Miss Kaoru? I really don't mind if we have to share this bed for a few nights, that I don't."

"What!?" She hissed through her teeth.,

Kaoru snapped her head and twirled towards the nervous swordsman and appeared to be even more flustered, with brewing anger. Her hair that was already raised like a cat's when angered, rose up even more in less than a second after hearing Kenshin say that. However Kenshin, being the idiot as he is, did not seem to notice it.

Yusuf and Frederick however, clearly noticed that the situation was deteriorating, even more so by Kenshin's attempts to reverse it. The two foreigners looked at each other and nodded. Frederick stepped forward and placed his hand on Kenshin's right shoulder.

"Herr Himura, from a military perspective, the *zwei of us see that it is in best interest to retreat from the battlefield, regroup und rethink our strategy."

"Oro?" Kenshin was a little bit confused by his type of observation, but understood that this problem needed to be solved.

Frederick continued, "Ve're an army that is outnumbered und ill-equipped on how to deal vith the vomen outside und the voman that stands before us. I vill have Cobra talk vith those three vomen, if he's not in the after effects of a blood rage, und vonce Fräulein Kaoru calms down you may talk vith her."

"What can The Cold Creature do?" Yusuf asked in disbelief.

Frederick waved his hand in front of his face. "Trust me my Islamic friend. He von't say much, but trust me." The German wolf said reassuringly. With that he gestured the other two men to leave the room.

"Mr. Heissler I could sleep outside if Miss Kaoru wants me to, that I can." Kenshin said as he walked in the threshold and passed the other five.

Kaoru snapped out of her embarrassed angered state upon hearing that suggestion.

"... in fact in I don't mind sleeping outside, that I don't." He finished as he disappeared from Kaoru's sight, making her feel ashamed of her childish reactions. She mentally thanked the heavens that she didn't say or do anything rash that would've made things worse.

"Hey Heissler, what's a blood rage?" Misao asked.

"A blood rage is something zat cannot be described vith vords, Fräulein Misao."

Meanwhile, in the dense forests 5 miles east of the Japanese capital city of Tokyo, Lt. Cobra Forrgon was perched on a tree branch 42 feet from the ground surrounded by the trees foliage and of three other trees, making him barely visible to the group 20 feet away from the 60 foot plant that he was spying from.

He was crouching on his hiding spot, staring intently for the past two minutes at this 'hostile' group of 125 humans, 35 Bull and 25 Tiger demons.

This was the third group he discovered, save for the first 250 enemies, since he began his search through the woods. The second group he discovered less than three minutes ago was 180 strong, composed of both humans and goblins and bore the same three-headed black dragon, green flag as the first group, with the same armaments. This third group's arsenal however, consisted mostly of samurai weaponry: Katanas, wakizashis, kodachis, naginatas, and kanabos. But they had percussion cap rifles and crossbows available.

Cobra's eyes however, were filled with disdain.

The first 250 enemies seemed problematic enough to have 115 skilled Japanese and Cobreinian sharpshooters watching them, accompanied by 55 swordsman. The second group had 75 Demonic-Cobreinian rifle and swordsman watching them closely. But this group, despite being armed to the teeth, was more disorganized and less disciplined than the other two groups. They had 20 makeshift tents with large holes in them and from where Cobra was, he could smell the various unknown odors emanating from them. The ammunition was irresponsibly being guarded by five drunk demon sentries. Half of the group was surrounding three fires that were cooking whatever animals they hunted, and were fighting over who was getting, and causing all sorts of nonsense.

Cobra shook his head at the disorderliness of the group and glanced at their banner and thought bitterly,_ 'The fucking leaders and the rest of this shitty group better be worth it.'_

Cobra attempted to leave the area and search for more enemies, he moved one inch when he noticed a _second _flag that was completely different from the other.

It had a white cross on a black field. He snapped his dark gaze back to the group and noticed that almost all the humans and some of the demons wore black and white uniformed... robes.

_'They're dressed as though if their... CRUSADERS!' _Cobra realized.

He spotted a large sign in five different languages. The only one he could easily translate was the Latin version.

WE ARE THE SERVANTS OF GOD AND JESUS CHRIST. WE ARE CALLED FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF INFIDELS, MONSTERS, AND THE HERETICAL ORDER. AND IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, WE SHALL BE THE GUARDIAN ANGELS FOR THE DEMONIC CREATURES WHO SEEK SALVATION THROUGH OUR CHRISTIAN FAITH AND OUR PRAYERS SHALL RECEIVE THE STRENGTH TO STRIKE AGAINST THE TYRANT EBENEZER AND HIS SATANIC FOLLOWERS. AMEN.

Cobra let out a low growl in and quietly said to himself, "And people ask me why I find Christianity distasteful." Bitterness was clear in his tone. He reached for Eiji's sword that tucked in his belt but kept himself from drawing it out.

"Wish I had a reason to slay them."

On cue, a low growling was heard... a few feet away from Cobra. "Speak of the devil."

With a bored expression, Cobra slowly turned to his right and sure enough, a humanized Tiger demon was growling at him and staring at him angrily. In his right hand he held a drawn broad sword, in his left he slowly unsheathed a wakizashi in his belt.

Meanwhile on the ground, a Bull was showing off his muscles and his horns coming out of his humanized head.

"... and these beauties can pierce through anything!" He boasted.

Once again on cue, a headless tiger demon, fell from the sky and fell on the sharp horns that effectively pierced through the cadaver as its blood spewed out as a result.

A series of gasps on wide eyes followed, wondering what had happened.

"Hey your right! They can pierce through anything." An unknown voice said.

Out of the trees, a black-eyed Cobreinian soldier wielding a broad sword and a bloodied wakizashi landed on his feet with ease.

"Even stab through your friend there." The soldier mockingly said with a straight face.

The faces that held fear now showed anger, as the need to avenge their fallen comrade was strong; they called for this man's blood.

Three Crusading humans and 6 Black-Dragonized demons came charging in at him.

Cobra took the broad sword and quickly swung it, effectively slicing through two Tiger demon necks and spewing their blood out everywhere. He stabbed two more humans in the torso, jumped up over a Tiger demon and stabbed him with both swords in his collar bones, he took the wakizashi and threw it at a human that pierced through his armor and embedded itself into his chest, killing him instantly.

In just three seconds, six foes were slain before they even hit the ground. At first, the soldier was standing in ankle high dry grass, next he was standing in a pool of blood from that of his enemies.

Six green wearing humans wielding katanas came charging in at the soldier ready to strike him down, only to be decapitated by a swing of the Cobreinian's sword.

"Who the hell is this monster!?" A Crusader asked angrily.

"The name's Lt. Cobra Forrgon." The soldier answered as he took three steps across the large pool of blood. "Though some call me the Anti-Christ. Even though I'm not the devil's child, feel free to call me that."

"You shall pay Anti-Christ, monster, for spilling Christian blood." Another Crusader declared.

Cobra shook his head. "No such thing as Christian blood Crusader, just blood."

Just then, a Bull demon charged at the mocking soldier at full speed, poised with his horns with the intention to run them through his body. Cobra however, used lighting speed that would rival Kenshin's god like speed, grabbed the bull by the horns, effectively stopping its charge, snapped the horns off, jammed one of them into the bull demon's skull which killed it instantly. He tossed the other horn to one of the Black-Dragon Tiger Demons which was embedded in its neck. He and everyone else watched the giant cat fall to the ground.

That brought the kill count to 15 in less than 30 seconds since his arrival.

"AARGH!" 20 humans wielding broad swords and katanas came charging in to avenge their fallen comrades. Cobra charged towards them and swung his sword a few times, slicing through them and killing them in an instant. Another Tiger swung his sword down at Cobra, only to have it blocked before being sliced in half by the Snake demon.

Cobra stared coldly at the remaining adversaries who glared angrily back at the soldier that was killing them off. Two Crusaders charged in at the sides, he countered this by jumping up and kicking them hard enough to snap their necks and kill them before hitting the ground.

"CHARGE!" 10 more of them charged in with bayonet rifles, Cobra grabbed the closest rifleman and snatched his gun away, stabbed him in the neck with the bayonet, fired the gun which hit another charger behind the dying man in the head, ducked when a swordsman tried to cleave his neck only to decapitate the man who Cobra bayoneted before stabbing him in the face with said bayonet.

"You." Cobra began as he plunged the bayonet into another man's stomach.

"Are." He bayoneted another in the stomach.

"All." He sliced a Bull demon across its throat with his broadsword.

"DOGS!" Cobra shouted as he sliced and stabbed his way through the enemy ranks with the bayonet rifle in one hand and a broad sword in the other, occasionally blocking and parrying the incoming attacks.

In just over two minutes of hacking, slashing and slicing, 62 humans, 21 bull demons, and 16 tigers lay dead, but the enemy would not give. This earned them some respect from the creature that was slaughtering them._ 'Dogs, yet fearless. I'll give'em that.'_

**Meanwhile at the Embassy's courtyard.**

Kenshin sat in the middle of one of the benches in the courtyard, with Frederick setting next to him on his right while Yusuf sat on his left, watching the children play. They had brief conversation on the basics of Kenshin and Kaoru's relationship, due to the sleeping arrangements incident, but it was mostly about Tae, Misao and a few other think that they should advance their relationship. But Kenshin merely said that he and Kaoru just _started _courting, and they agreed to take it slow for the time being.

Frederick and Yusuf didn't really understand the full circumstances of their relationship or courtship, but they silently agreed not to press the subject any further. After all they had another issue to discuss, which they had done for a few minutes now.

"I see." Kenshin said as he kept his eyes forward. "I had assumed that the demon race accepted Ebenezer as their sole political figure, or at least saw him as the highest public official of the demon race, but I had no idea that each tribe and species had its own government, that I did not."

Frederick nodded as he too kept his eyes looking forward. "Ja, but lets not get too far into discussing demon politics for now, its rather complicated to talk about."

"But," Yusuf interjected, "I can't understand why Tigers would form a separatist movement with goblins, and ally themselves with the bull demons whom they had fought many times in the past."

Silence shrouded the three men, only acknowledging the sound of laughter from two wolf pups and two grandchildren chasing a ball that passed by them.

Kenshin leaned forward with his elbows resting atop his reverse-blade sword that rested on his lower thighs.

"I guess our only answer to that is the 'large organized group' that Cobra mentioned earlier, that it is."

The other two men nodded in agreement.

"Then I guess the next question is," Sano threw out as he walked up behind them, "who are the leaders of this organization. Right Aoshi?"

Aoshi came to the side where Yusuf was sitting and just nodded.

"We couldn't help but overhear your conversation, gotta say you demons and Krêtans sure live pretty rough lives with all these enemies about." Sanosuke added.

Yusuf just shook his head. "Don't remind us."

"Hey Uncle Ken are you done talking with your new friends yet?" Ayame asked as she and her sister approached the grown-ups.

"Yeah Uncle Kenny you promised that you would play with us?" Suzume reminded him.

Kenshin smiled. "I did promise, didn't I? But wait- where's Yahiko?"

"Yahiko and Auntie Kaoru are playing with swords right now." Ayame pointed at the other of the yard to where Kaoru, who had changed into her training gi and hakama, and Yahiko were sparring, filling the air with the sounds of wood smacking and against wood... and occasionally Yahiko.

"Auntie Kaoru and Yahiko play with swords!" Suzume repeated.

Frederick closely observed the two and he pointed out to the other men that he could clearly tell that the young female kenjutsu instructor's skills were undoubtedly that at the level of a national champion.

"Indeed she is Mr. Heissler." Kenshin smiled.

"However," Yusuf interjected, "she might be noble martial artist, I can tell that she's inferior compared to the Battousai." He said solemnly.

Kenshin's smile fell, it was true what this man says.

Just then, Frederick covered his nose and growled in discomfort.

"Heh! The Battousai's Raccoon girl is inferior to the idiot street fighter." Said a familiar gruff voice.

They turned and spotted Saitou. Except his police jacket was absent and his hair was a little messy, and the smell of sweat and sex accompanied him.

Sanosuke smirked at the compliment and the cop's disheveled appearance. "Go easy on the Missy their Wolf, like you did with your wife."

Saitou scowled at the comment. "Teh. Compared to the four of us, we'd have to go easy on the Raccoon girl and the brat who both think that they can play with swords."

"HAAH!"

SMACK SMACK!

Kaoru and Yahiko heard the insults and attacked the wolf cop with their wooden swords, hoping to each land a hit. But Saitou blocked both of them easily with his _sheathed _sword, and just rolled his eyes at their attempts to strike them. But they continued their assault and swung wildly at him, but Saitou humored them and blocked every swing they made with his sheathed sword.

Saitou let out a fake yawn showing, arrogantly, that the assistant master and student had no chance to defeat him.

"Oroooooo!?" Kenshin's eyes bulged out of his sockets to see Kaoru and Yahiko, especially Kaoru, spar with his extremely dangerous rival.

Ayame and Suzume stared with wide innocent eyes at the scene.

Frederick and Yusuf were both shocked, less than Kenshin though, as well confused at the wild behavior the master and student were displaying.

"Is this normal behavior for them?" Yusuf asked aloud.

"More or less." Sanosuke answered.

More or less, was an understatement. In truth, this was a regular routine for the Kenshingumi.

As Kenshin was hopelessly trying to calm them down before one of them got hurt, a faint popping sound went off in the distance.

Though a soft noise, it caught everyone's attention.

"Sounded like a gunshot. Maybe somebody's hunting." Kaoru suggested.

Frederick narrowed his eyes disagreed, "Nein"

He stood up from his seat and walked a few paces. As he walked, he started sniffing their, growling as he did.

"What's the matter Uncle Fred?" Ayame asked, concern in her tone.

He didn't answer but kept on sniffing, until he growled even louder like a dog.

"Sir Fred?" Kenshin asked, wanting to make sure everything was all right.

The Germanic demon turned around and faced them all with a darkened expression on his face that paralyzed most of them.

"I smell blood."

Meanwhile at Cobra's new 'playground'.

Cobra sliced two more men in half with his sword. 45 Men, 11 bulls, and 9 tiger demons remain standing after four minutes of blood shed.

"Do not falter men! We must destroy this monster in the name of our Lord, Pope... and Mr. Rogue!" A human crusader commanded.

That Cobra's attention even more when he mentioned a general. The need to interrogate them about this 'Mr. Rogue' was apparent. "The little Jew that you worship after ignorantly believing to be a Christian, does not have the ability to command armies, and your Il Papa is not that stupid to stand against the Demon King."

The remaining enemy soldiers heavily growled in anger at the demon's mocking tone.

Cobra grinned darkly for the first time in who knows how long. "Your little Jesus cannot do anything but watch as I slaughter his servants."

The Men and Demons could clearly see that their enemy was just trying to enrage them even more... and he was succeeding.

"VILE DEMON!" Shouted 5 Tigers and 12 humans, charging in with spears, short swords, and a couple of kanabos.

A Tiger demon wielding a naginata, thrust his weapon at his enemy, only to be dodged and stabbed in the stomach by Cobra's broad sword.

The last words he heard from the man who killed him were, "Here's a tip: Use a thrusting technique that surpasses Mr. Saitou's Gatotsu." He said as he simultaneously drew the sword out and slew the other 16 foes with four slashes, two from the gun and the sword, all within three seconds.

Cobra grinned as he watched the bodies hit the grassy soil, only to have their blood stain the ground. Cobra's grin was replaced by a serious look. "However, I am curious to know more about this 'Mr. Rogue' which you fight for."

"Silence monster! You shall not AAAGH!" The Crusader that was talking was stabbed through the stomach by someone from behind, he looked over his shoulder to see Cobra had someone managed to appear behind him.

Another charged in behind Cobra, only to be back fisted in the face and stabbed in the chest.

Cobra withdrew sword as watched the lifeless lump drop to the blood soaked dirt. He unsheathed the sword that Eiji handed him, ready to slay more of his opponents that stand against him.

Just then, twelve soldiers, both human and demon, armed with either rifles or crossbows encircled him, trapping him in the center, every single one aiming at him.

_'Seriously? Are they this fucking stupid?'_ Cobra's mind asked.

"FIRE!" They all fired their guns and bows at the same time, hoping to hit them. But Cobra hit the dirt the second the order was called out, and instead of killing him... they killed each other.

"They are that stupid." Cobra said as he watched the 12 dead enemies dropped to the bloody ground, while laying on his back.

A Bull demon with a kanabo stood over him and raised the large, iron-studded wooden club over his head ready to strike downwards and Cobra raised his sword to block it until...

_"Hiten Mitsurugi Style... Ryu Tsui Sen!"_

The Bull demon didn't know what him, literally, but he felt something crash into his face, that caused him to fall over on his back. The other men and demons were shocked to see a man using god-like speed to defeat on of their own, but they came angered again after a few seconds.

Cobra jumped up to his feet and was mildly surprised to see who had come to aid him, even though he didn't need it. Kenshin and Cobra stared up and down at each other for a minute. Kenshin wore his battle expression, while Cobra had no expression.

"Battousai, what brings you here?" The Demon asked.

"We heard a gun shot, that we did." Kenshin half-confessed.

"Yeah and the Wolf Man said that he smelled blood." A ninja girl said as she jumped out of tree and landed on her feet with ease.

Just then, a white clad street-fighter came running to meet them, carrying a small boy and a woman wearing a training outfit under his arms, followed by a male ninja and a police officer.

As the other five caught up with Kenshin and Misao, Yahiko jumped out from under Sanosuke's arms and shouted in unison with Misao, "The Kenshin-Owniwaban Group comes to the rescue!" The swordsman and kunoichi boasted.

Cobra looked unimpressed at what the citizens and police department have dubbed this group as the Tokyo Peace Force. For he could tell that their not accustomed at destroying monsters... much less fighting them.

"It seems though we are a tad late." Aoshi emotionlessly said, referring to the corpses that litter the forest ground and pools of blood that now stain the earth. There was at least 100 dead when they had arrived. Some of the cadavers were missing limbs... some were disemboweled.

Kenshin winced at the sight of those who lost their lives recently, Kaoru covered her mouth with her hand, equally shocked. Yahiko and Misao were ghostly pale, Sanosuke grimaced, Aoshi held no expression, while Saitou just grinned as usual.

"You Godless heathens are with this monster!?" A crusader asked in disgust.

The seven of the, turned towards the remaining soldiers. Cobra explained the situation quickly yet thoroughly, starting from when he was compromised. He briefly explained what a crusader was and their origins.

"We shall destroy thee heathens in the name of Christ."

Cobra turned towards the enemy and grinned madly. "Ask of me, and I shall give thee heathen for thy inheritance. And for thy possession, the ends of the earth. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces, like a potters vessel. Be wise now therefore O ye kings: be admonished ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, though his wrath be kindled but a little." He mocked their religion once again.

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NOT FINISHED. STILL NEED SOME TWEAKS. THIS QUOTE is from Hellsing. YOU'LL SEE MORE HELLSING REFERENCES.


	11. Chapter 10

**THERE'S A YOUTUBE LINK ON MY PROFILE PAGE. ITS A VIDEO OF COBREINY. SHOWS YOU WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE, and blah blah blah. CHECK IT OUT. Also, things are gonna get a little... scary. Another Hellsing Ultimate reference.**

**Read and Review.**

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Recap: _Cobra turned towards the enemy and grinned madly. "Ask of me, and I shall give thee heathen for thy inheritance. And for thy possession, the ends of the earth. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces, like a potters vessel. Be wise now therefore O ye kings: be admonished ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, though his wrath be kindled but a little." He mocked their religion once again._

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"A monster and a heathen such as you should not dare even read from the holy Bible or quote from it!" A Tiger Crusader said in disgust.

Sanosuke smirked at the religious anger these men were displaying. It reminded him of his fight with Monk Anji the Destroyer, who justified the destruction of evil people with his faith.

"Hey Kenshin, don't these meat sacks remind you of your fight with Shogo Amakusa?" Sanosuke asked, nudging Kenshin's shoulder.

"Indeed they do Sano," Kenshin nodded his head, "but I sense that these men do not truly stand for their god and savior, that they don't." He finished solemnly.

"And I assume," Saitou interjected, "that these so-called religious men remind you of The Fallen Monk, huh moron?"

Sanosuke smirked, "You read my mind Saitou. But from what Kenshin said I can tell that these jokers can't even follow their own religion without violating it."

That made the humans and demons angrier, including those of the Green-Black Dragon group. Just then, the sounds of quick and heavy footsteps came from within the trees behind the nearly decimated group.

An additional of 200 human Greeners and Crusaders emerged from the tree line, wearing partial body armor, and wielding shields, spears, and swords.

"Ah! Our brothers in arms come to aide us against these pagans!" A Tiger demon cheered. The others roared in delight of receiving reinforcements. 20 more Bulls and Tigers joined in with the group.

"Alright now it's a party!" Yahiko boasted.

"Don't get too excited Yahiko." Kaoru warningly scolded her student. She turned to Kenshin and nodded at him. The ex-manslayer nodded in return, understanding what her eyes were telling him. He started walking to the middle of the corpse littered clearing, stepping over the mangled bodies of those killed by Cobra. The smell of blood was thick and assaulted his senses, making him feel a bit woozy.

Kenshin grimaced as he made his through this bloodied, familiar... graveyard, while trying not to throw up.

_'Lt. Cobra sure did make a mess, that he did. As I had done long ago in Kyoto, that I did.'_ He thought as he stopped near the cooking meals. He drew his sword out, alerting the crusaders as they believed it to be a challenge. But were perplexed and shocked and what this swordsman did next.

Kenshin swiped at the dirt with his sword, spraying it over the fire, dousing the flames.

"The smoke was bothering me, that it was. Now then... would you men and creatures be willing to lay down your arms and surrender peacefully?" He asked, hoping to avoid any further loss of lives.

Laughter broke out among the ranks of the enemy, thinking it was some type of joke.

"Are you insane?!" One human asked.

"Us surrender?" Another said.

"We are on mission from God," They all said in unison, "just as our banner says: WE ARE THE SERVANTS OF GOD AND JESUS CHRIST. WE ARE CALLED FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF INFIDELS, MONSTERS, AND THE HERETICAL ORDER. AND IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, WE SHALL BE THE GUARDIAN ANGELS FOR THE DEMONIC CREATURES WHO SEEK SALVATION THROUGH OUR CHRISTIAN FAITH AND OUR PRAYERS SHALL RECEIVE THE STRENGTH TO STRIKE AGAINST THE TYRANT EBENEZER AND HIS SATANIC FOLLOWERS. AMEN."

"And heathen, we shall destroy his infidel army, and there's no turning back." A Greener said.

Saitou visibly smirked at this declaration of war; he hadn't had any real fun in so long.

Kenshin closed his eyes and hid them behind his bangs. "I see, I didn't want it to come to this... for many lives would be lost."

"Your Satanic friend does not seemed to be disturbed about such outcomes heathen!" Another human scoffed.

Cobra jerked his head a bit, and let small, mischievous grin creep up to his face. "Did I just here someone from a militaristic, Catholic order questioning my morality? Let me ask you something Christian, if your God and savior Jesu Christo would allow your comrades to be slaughtered so quickly... then wouldn't seem to you that any God or Savior like that, would be just as Satanic as I?"

Gasps and wide eyes spread through the ranks for a moment, before replaced anger.

"So," Misao began with a lame expression on her face, "do you normally show this much contempt towards Christians?"

"If they were Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, or even Jews, and if they were also my enemy, I would still toy with them." Cobra remarked.

Misao kept her mouth shut, not knowing what a Muslim or Jew was, as did the others, since Cobra briefly mentioned the other two faiths during his lecture.

"You have insulted or Lord in heaven way too much fiend!" A Crusader roared.

The sounds of gunshots and sword clashing sounded in the distance, accompanied by men yelling and screaming.

"Hn. Seems that the fighting has spread." Sanosuke said aloud.

Kenshin turned around, feeling as if he failed to stop further blood shed. Kaoru had the same look in her eyes, knowing too that many of these men and beasts would lose their lives, by the hands of Saitou, Aoshi, Misao more than likely, a few by Sanosuke, and mostly by the creature named Cobra.

"Aoshi," Kenshin called out, "could you and Miss Misao please stay close to Miss Kaoru and Yahiko."

Saitou smirked at the request his rival was making. "What's wrong Battousai? Are you beginning to doubt that you can protect the child and your woman? Or is it that you are finding the need to spill blood, and don't want them to stop you?"

"I just don't want them getting too involved in this battle, that I don't. Especially against demons." He explained as her returned to his group.

"Don't kill all of them though," Cobra interjected, "I have a few questions that need answering."

"Hn. I won't make any promises," Saitou sneered at the militant creature, "but I'll hold back for now as long as you don't prevent me from enforcing my brand of justice, Aku Soku Zan." He announced as he drew out his sword.

"Square up Soldiers of God and Mr. Rogue! Form a phalanx!" The soldiers complied and formed a shield wall with spears pointing at the others.

Aoshi nodded. "We shall honor this request Battousai." Drawing out his kodachis.

"You can count on us Himura!" Misao boasted, pulling out six kunais.

Kaoru nodded too in agreement; she didn't want herself or Yahiko to get hurt and have Kenshin worry so much about it. "Don't worry Kenshin, we'll stick to the humans and fight them if they get close enough. Just promise me you won't get hurt fighting those things." She demanded.

Kenshin turned and flashed her with one of his Rurouni smiles and said, "Only if you promise not to tell Ayame and Suzume that I was fighting monsters."

"We won't!" Yahiko and Kaoru assured him.

"I won't either Battousai," Cobra interjected, "as long as you end their sickness." He said as knife-shaped claws formed around his fingers.

Unbeknownst to the warriors below, a raven perched up in a tree with red dots glowing from its eyes, was revealing to those who were watching...

At an unknown location, and in a large dark room, with the source of light was a giant a mirror, a screen on a wall showing what the raven was seeing. Three figures, whose silhouetted forms were the only other things visible, watched with undeniable amusement.

One of the silhouetted figures sat in a chair, between the other two standing shadows, laughed half-heartedly, as he watched the bloodshed progressed, by the creature in the mirror.

"Hahahahahah! What an interesting little show this is," Said the center figure in a very calm and soft-spoken tone with amusement, "flawlessly being performed by one of the many actors of an even bigger show." He said as his smile gleamed in the dark.

"Yes," Confirmed one of the silhouetted figures standing on the left, "look how he slays our troops with a short, Japanese sword and longer, European sword with such efficiency... quite impressive if you ask me."

"Ah but soon impressive shall be AH! Look how he tears them apart gentlemen that's so amusing... quite impressive shall be an understatement in the near future. But it is appropriate, for now we see the first episode of another mini-series."

Meanwhile at the Embassy...

Ebenezer Forrgon, King of the Demon race and Cobreiny, sat in the middle of a long table while meeting with some of Japan's top leaders including the...young Emperor, who sat no more than six feet away from this... creature, that he only had met twice so far. Next to the emperor was Aritoma Yamagata, then Police commissioner Kawaji Toshiyoshi, followed by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Navy, Finance, and Education. One Meiji's left were several high-ranking army officers and a few middle ranking politicians.

On Ebenezer's side of the table were his wife, several economic, military and political party leaders. A few of which were women, much to the surprise of the Japanese government.

They had been in this meeting for 15 minutes, and were suppose to be discussing trade agreements and economic deals, but some of the officials were some small talk with each other, and a few Japanese officers tried to start-up a conversation with Ebenezer. Yamagata and Emperor Meiji didn't say much to the king, for this wasn't some cheap bureaucrat that they could waste time with or a simple-minded diplomat that they could sweet talk, this was an actual political figure that has made many achievements for the people of his country, as they had heard.

"Revered demon king!" A high-ranking Japanese bureaucrat joyfully called out entering the room, accompanied by two cooks carrying trays of food and bottles of drink. "Can the good graces of the Japanese government offer you some Japanese cuisine, and finest chilled sake in the nation?"

Ebenezer did not look away from the paper that he was fixed on but gave his response, "I'm sorry but I don't consume alcohol while under the influence of a another, stronger poison called: politics."

"Of course, of course." The Japanese politician laughed nervously.

Some of the Japanese political members were skeptical of the King's response. Yamagata and the Emperor on the other hand, nodded their heads in understanding at his blunt remark. Knowing that in the world of politics, personal gain was present.

"Speaking of consuming," a Cobreinian economist began, "I think having lunch is in order to quell the tensions I've been feeling."

Most of them agreed and thanked the cooks for the meals they were receiving. The trays were either of fried fish or sushi, with bowls of rice and a bowl of miso soup. As for the sake... no body took it. Since they all wanted to follow Ebenezer's example of having a clear mind during work.

"Mein Kaiser!" A German voice called out.

Ebenezer looked over his shoulder and saw a very annoyed wolf demon. "Frederick?"

"Did a soldier tell you about some potential hostiles?" His voice struggling to be polite.

"Over 200 goblins, humans, and tiger demons? Yes.

Gasps rose up from the Japanese men.

"There appears to more out there, und Cobra ist now spilling blood."

Meanwhile at the blood bath...

_"Futae no Kiwami!"_ Sano cried out as he crushed a Greener Tiger's skull.

Aoshi slashed and stabbed his demonic and humans foes with ease, while wielding his double-kodachis.

Kenshin, using his god-like speed, struck down many enemies that came across him. _"Hiten Mitsurugi Style... Do Ryu Sen!" _Kenshin cried out striking the earth with his reverse-blade sword, sending out a shower of rocks that struck a group knights coming his way.

Saitou pierced through the shield of a crusader with his Gatotsu, skewering him in the process, before performing a side-sweeping attack on a bull demon.

Kaoru and Yahiko fared well against the humans, striking at the heads, necks, and any other unprotected body parts with their bokkens. Misao, keeping her end of the promise she and Aoshi made with Kenshin, killed any demons that came within 15 foot radius near Kaoru and Yahiko with her kunais.

_"Kansatsu Tobikunai!_" Misao cried out, hitting three human Greeners in the head with her kunais.

_"Hiten Mitsurugi Style... Ryu Tsui Sen!" _Striking down on another crusader's head.

Things were looking up for them. Or so they thought. But they were still unaware that from an unknown location, three individuals were watching them through the raven's eyes...

The mirror showed Cobra on his back about to be struck out by Bull demon, until a short swordsman cried out and struck him down first.

"And who is this man, that is able to perform such a technique?" Asked the grinning figure on the left.

"That is no ordinary man, as you can tell! That is Battousai the Manslayer!" The center figure gleefully said, pointing at the screen.

"Ooooh, Battousai the Manslayer huh? He is truly a master of the Art of murder," Figure number two said while watching more people coming out of the forest, "then again, its disappointing now for your new friend said that Battousai became a wanderer who sworn off killing. Very disappointing." He figure lowered his head.

But the center figure waved his hand and said, "Don't worry my friend. He'll kill eventually. He'll have to since he is not only fighting humans... but monsters." He said as his grinned widened, "And same goes for that female swordsman, Battousai's woman, and her apprentice, due to the fact they practice a style of swordsmanship that seeks to protect people without killing. That's fine against humans, but she'll have to break it to fight demons. It's exciting no?"

Meanwhile at the battle...

Aoshi killed six more enemies with his _Kaiten Kenbu. _Saitou skewered three more crusaders with his Gatotsu, surprising Misao in the process at just how destructive it was.

And Sanosuke felt proud as he knocked more enemies down with punches, kicks, and occasionally using Futae no Kiwami. His stopped when he spotted Cobra which made him freeze with fear.

"Kenshin," Sanosuke called out, "you gotta check Snake Man out!" His voice sounding rather disturbed.

Kenshin turned to see Cobra in front of a group of enemies... and wished he didn't. Kaoru dodged the swing of a sword and struck upwards into the enemy's elbow, breaking it, before striking the left and right sides of his head, and landing a final blow in the middle of his face. Yahiko struck at a human Greener's groin and struck down on his face when he fell to the ground.

"Your doing great Yahiko, keep it up." Kaoru complimented, before striking down another enemy.

"Thanks Kaoru, and you're not doing so bad yourself!" Yahiko returned the compliment, before hitting another.

The two stopped fighting as they heard Sanosuke calling out to Kenshin, as did Saitou, Aoshi, and Misao, who all widened their eyes in horror at what they saw.

Cobra's... jaws were clamped down on a Crusader's blood spewing neck, causing fear to spread through the enemy ranks, and causing horror fill his allies' eyes. The poor man's head fell off from his body, since Cobra's teeth bit through his neck as he was... drinking it, much to everyone's horror. Cobra took both of his encased index claws and simultaneously riddled the tiger's torso with deep, puncture wounds in two seconds.

They were originally surprised when Cobra inadvertently showed them his teal colored claws, that were now crimson. They looked as though they were made of metal, despite the fact that they grew from the knuckles and encased them around each finger on his hands. The claws each had a triangular shape, yet they were sharp underneath. After Sano noticed the claws, he realized that Cobra used those on the 150 soldiers he killed in three minutes.

_'No wonder Saitou didn't see how he killed them.'_ Sano thought.

Kenshin winced at the sight in remembrance and placed his hand over his right collar-bone... where Makoto Shishio bit him. And as he watches Cobra, the pain he felt from that bite returns.

Misao was frozen with fear at the brutality that was being produced by this demonic soldier. Yahiko's face turned blue, as he created a mental note to never to call Cobra ugly ever again.

Cobra hissed as he flung himself at another one of his victims, and clamped his mouth down on his neck and threw his bloodied, headless corpse across the battlefield. He sliced and dismembered his way through the ranks with his claws, and continued doing so until there was one human Crusader left. As Cobra dropped on enemy from his large jaws, the Crusader's back met with the tree and slid down it.

While doing so, he pulled out a revolver and cried out, "AAAAHH! YOURE A MONSTER!"

Cobra grinned manically with blood dripping down from his mouth. He took a few steps towards the fearful Christian and said, "Yes people keep telling me that. And what does that make you who would stand against me Catholic? A man? A dog? A _monster_!?" He asked stopping halfway.

Just then, the crusader's widened even more with fear and pointed the revolver at his head and...

"NO!" Kenshin cried out.

BANG!

Cobra gasped at the knight's final action and stiffened for minute, before letting out a growl in frustration.

The center figure that was watching laughed maniacally, "HAHAHAHAHAHA! What a wonderful closing scene that was for this episode! Absolutely astounding this character! Look at him you two, so horrifying it makes my blood run cold." His voice singing through the darkness.

The other man's grin was visible in the dark. "I guess I spoke too soon about this soldier."

"Yes, yes you did my comrade." The center figure replied. "You know what my friends? This... 'thing' that you see in the mirror... is the type of enemy that I want: a creature that swims through a sea of blood. An entity that walks down a bloody road that is seemingly endless, without so much as to looking over his shoulder and showing no visible hint of regret, while maintaining whatever sanity he has left. He is quite different since we last met."

"Different?" Figure number 3 asked, speaking for the first time.

"Yes! Quite different from the soft, brown-eyed _boy _from 60 years ago. Now what I see, is something that I do not understand just yet, but that I have dreamt about all these years." He laughed insanely throughout the darkness.

_To be continued._

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So what do you think. I'll post the video of the nation Cobreiny on Sunday on Youtube. Review please. Youll find the link on my profile page.


	12. Chapter 11

**This is the prequel, or something of the dinner segment of the story. Gonna be long so it might be two chapters. Perhaps three. Also there is some LIME in this chapter. Can you guess who the couple is? And if you didn't know, the last episode of Rurouni Kenshin, episode 95, showed Kenshin and Kaoru sharing the same room for the night. WATCH IT! You have to watch the fillers, or read each episode summary at least.**

**I apologize for the lack of chapter titles. When the best one suites me I will enact. Read and review please.**

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The rest of the day after the massacre in the forest was... NOT uneventful and not without... 'results'. By the time Yamagata met up with Kenshin and the others, 5 minutes after the... suicide, he and his men were shocked at the sight of the dead and dying and... incapacitated, which was as least welcoming compared to the dead. Both armies and the police managed to find a few more enemy groups throughout the forests outside of Tokyo, albeit much smaller, no more than 20 strong each and all human, surrendered without a fight. However, 35 Japanese soldiers and policemen and 16 Cobreinian soldiers were killed, and another 50 wounded, in the fighting against the two larger groups, while they managed to take out 97 percent of the enemy demons and half of the goblins and humans, forcing them to surrender to the Japanese and Cobreinians.

In the end, more than 500 enemy combatants were killed in almost 20, nonconsecutive minutes, and bringing Cobra's overall kill count to 32,228. Two numbers that Kenshin did not like at all.

Officers and soldiers alike ran around the bloodied areas with orders for the officers and stretchers the wounded, and wagons for the prisoners. Saitou, with an unlit cigarette in his mouth and holding Eiji's sheathed sword, directed the confiscation of the enemy's weapons, and Yamagata told Cobra that Frederick wanted to see him... immediately.

Cobra wiped the blood off from around his mouth and agreed to do so, but told Yamagata to prep any capable survivor for thorough interrogation. The Lord of the Meiji Imperial Army acknowledged his requests, and scheduled his presence at the police department next week.

Yamagata looked past Cobra and caught a glance of Kenshin standing over the dismembered bodies of the dead while Kaoru stood beside him and placed her hand on his shoulder, and felt guilt creep up in his heart. Kenshin started to walk out of the clearing, prompting Kaoru to ask where he was going before following him.

Saitou sneered at his rival's retreating form. "Aoshi already left the area to meditate, weasel girl followed him, the brat went to go relax, and Zanza... went to the fox for a check up, and now he's going to gripe about today with his woman!" He said bitterly.

"Out of all people Mr. Saitou, I thought you would understand." Cobra inquired.

"Where are you going with this?" Saitou raised an eyebrow.

Cobra removed the cigar and exhaled the smoke. "Every man has his breaking point when it comes to the heat of battle and death's aroma."

"Why do I get the feeling your getting soft on me?" The wolf spat.

"I'm not. You can't expect everyone to think the same way as you do Mr. Saitou. Nor can you expect all warriors and soldiers to endure all the hardships of war."

Saitou smirked at the monster's words, "I maybe a manslayer like Battousai, but you may have a point."

Aritoma nodded in agreement, knowing Kenshin might agree as well.

However, three questions remained.

What to do with the bodies?

Cobra's answer, "Burn the fuck out of them."

Yamagata and several others flinched at that.

The prisoners?

"We'll take all the demons and goblins and half of the humans to our country."

And lastly... what to tell the public?

"Tell 'em the goddamn truth." He bluntly replied.

Yamagata protested that course of action. Saying it would cause fear and confusion to spread not only through Tokyo, but through Japan most likely.

Cobra pulled out a cigar and lit it with his thumb claw and started smoking it. "Lord Yamagata, we are both in the common sense of soldiers. And our main duty as soldiers is to protect and serve the public on a national level. We need to give the citizens a warning, a heads up." He explained as he began to leave.

"One question Forrgon," Saitou interjected as he walked near the demon, "what steps would you take in light of this situation?"

"As I said, thoroughly inform the public, fortify your major cities, expand the size of your navy, and uhhhh..."

Yamagata and Saitou noticed that Cobra was clearly uncomfortable as to the step he was attempting to suggest. He scratched the back of his head, trying to think of the best way to explain what he was thinking about.

"Lets leave it at that for now. And we should also speak with the Emperor, your brother and Himura about this later." Yamagata inquired.

Cobra and Saitou nodded.

Cobra turned to leave after lighting Saitou's cigarette. "Unferzog Katzer Broshar." He said randomly.

"Huh?" Yamagata raised an eyebrow.

"A series of symphonies made in my country between 1786-1790, from a German immigrated demon named Joseph von Steuben. He wrote in the Germanic dialect of our language as well as in real German."

"What does it translate to?"

"Einheit auf dem Schlachtfeld?" He said in German.

"Unity on the Battlefield?"

"Yeah." And with that he left, leaving behind a confused Yamagata.

Meanwhile at the new infirmary...

Megumi was at the embassy's newly built medical area, it consisted of three rooms with beds and supplies and a small research room. She sat on stool in front of a counter with glass containers of medicinal value and was writing down some of the ingredients in a journal, for a few concoctions that Frederick mentioned earlier, that were made to cure certain skin conditions.

Apparently Frederick Heissler was not only an experienced and disciplined soldier, but for 100 of his 187 years of life, he has been an outstanding doctor that charges next to nothing for his services. As she worked, Megumi felt two, strong arms from behind wrap around her waist and pulled her flush body up against something hard. Or rather someone... that she knew too well.

She felt that person breath into her ear saying, "Hey there Fox Lady."

Megumi smirked as she turned around to wrap her arms around that person's neck and replied with a mild husky tone,

"Hello Rooster."

Megumi closed her eyes and pressed her lips up against Sano's in a bruising kiss. Her tongue entered her partner's mouth, engaging in a slow battle of wits. After a moment of tongue dancing, they broke the kiss for air. Sanosuke lowered his head and started leaving light kisses up and down Megumi's neck, emitting a low sigh from her and making the doctor to run her fingers through the fighter's hair. Sano smirked at his ability to please the fox lady, then he ran his tongue up her throat making her moan quietly, before capturing her lips again.

Since the night of Tanabata, Sano and Megumi have been secretly seeing other starting out with only a peck on the cheek or lips here and there, and more recently, as in two weeks, they've gotten even further with their kissing sessions. And sometimes... even more. But they've kept up appearances. Such as their meaningless arguments, and Megumi flirting with Kenshin and some other man.

However, Megumi noticed that Sano was now relenting, making her do all the work, which made her think that something else was going through his head. But she didn't want to end their fun just yet. So she broke the kiss... and teasingly pressed her teeth into his chin, making him uncomfortable, for it reminded him of someone else... and their jaws.

Sano placed his large hands on either side of Megumi face, releasing his chin from her teeth and pulling her back, and started taking a few deep breaths. "Don't do that." He said quietly.

Megumi looked up at him, puzzled as to why he was displaying this new behavior. To be honest she had been worried a little bit when he went to go fight demons.

Megumi's trademark fox ears sprouted forth with a sly smile on her face and asked, "What's wrong Sanosuke? Is this about last night at the clinic? When I got down my knees... and you stopped me from pulling down those trousers of yours?" She sultrily asked before placing a teasing kiss on his lips.

Sano sweat dropped and blushed little.

"No." He said curtly as he brought his hands up and pushed Megumi's fox ears back into her head.

"Then what?" She asked with annoyance in her tone.

"Just freaked out a little from the battle." He said as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Why what happened?" She asked worriedly.

"That Cobra freak not only killed his opponents with his claws, but with his jaws too!"

"Okay, okay I'd rather not know." She quickly muttered, turning her back to her boyfriend. The street fighter sighed at the abruption to their fun, until Megumi turned back around, wrapped her arms around his neck, and crushed her red lips to his.

Sano broke the kiss again and asked, "Anyway what was the bed sharing plan from earlier all about?"

Megumi looked confused for a second, and then realized he was talking about Kenshin and Kaoru.

"Oh that," She smiled and slid her hands down to Sano's check, "hmmmmm lets talk about that later and do this instead." She insisted and resumed kissing him.

Sano broke the kiss again with a cocky grin on his face. "I knew it; I'm too much for ya to resist."

Megumi scowled at her lover and pushed herself from him and crossed her arms. "Hmph," She began as she tossed her hair back and closed her, "in your dreams Sanosuke. Like I would ever fall for a brainless, bird headed ruffian like you!" She chided.

Sano didn't respond, instead he leaned down and planted his lips on hers and resumed their activity. Megumi gently placed her left hand on the back of Sanosuke's head and placed her other hand on his broad shoulder. Sanosuke lowered his head and started kissing and licking the sides of Megumi's neck and her throat again, making her let out another moan.

Meanwhile in the forest...

Kenshin stood in front of a tree with head bowed in shame. Feeling a sense of failure from preventing such a high loss of life today. He didn't even acknowledged the pleas from the young woman behind him... that is until he felt the swing of her shinai connecting with the top of his head.

"Orororo!" He cried out, falling to the ground swirly eyed.

"Okay," Kaoru huffed, "now that I have your attention, would you please talk to me? Before I hit you again." She finished sweetly.

He sat up to where he leaned against the tree. "Oro? Talk about what Miss Kaoru?" He asked innocently.

"Don't give me that Kenshin," She replied kneeling down to his level, "I know that what happened recently is troubling you and I want to offer my help. But I need you to talk to me." She pouted.

"Miss Kaoru-"

"Please Kenshin?!" Kaoru begged.

Kenshin felt his defenses crumble at the sound of Kaoru's pleas.

"After all," She stared at him with puppy eyes, "we are courting aren't we?"

_'Does she have to be this adorable when she pouts?'_

Unable to resist Kaoru's puppy eyes, he decided to come clean. "Well, I guess this is what I get for making you worry. Sit next to me and I'll tell you what's bothering me." He smiled a small smile at her.

"Thank you Kenshin!" Kaoru squealed while throwing her arms around his neck and placing a kiss on his lips with a 'mwah'. Kenshin's face was redder than his hair at the physical interaction Kaoru put on, but relaxed after a minute.

Kaoru, realizing what she did, blushed like a cherry flower and tried to remove herself from Kenshin, but was kept from doing so and felt a pair of lips on her forehead. Kaoru pulled back a little to see Kenshin smiling down at her and said, "We are courting aren't we?" He repeated her question.

Kaoru blush deepened and looked down in embarrassment. Kenshin tilted her head back up and connected his lips with hers. Kaoru's blushed ever more and her eyes were wide like saucers. Kenshin pulled back and smiled at her, brushing back some hair from her face and said, "You're really cute when you blush."

Kaoru felt giddy on the inside, but was frustrated on the outside for the change of subject and hit Kenshin on the head with the shinai again... only lighter this time.

"Oro?!" He started rubbing the bump that formed on his head.

Kaoru's face showed anger, despite the visible blush. "T-that's w-w-what you get f-for changing the s-subject you idiot! Your gonna t-tell me whats b-bothering you!" She stuttered._ 'And then continue kissing.'_ She mentally added.

Kenshin smiled at her once again then dropped it, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath and said, "I feel powerless Miss Kaoru, that I do." He opened his eyes.

"Powerless? I'm confused."

"Not just powerless but... alike. When I first learned of Cobra's existence a week ago and what he did, I felt troubled, disturbed. What he did just recently, I felt powerless from preventing the brutality that he caused." He finished quietly as he looked up the canopy.

Kaoru took a minute to process the words that were coming out of Kenshin's mouth. When she did, she started to feel, angry... at the monster called Lt. Forrgon. For the past week, she realized, that her beloved wanderer seemed... preoccupied during that time. Most likely by the thoughts of the murders committed by Cobra. And now this monster was making her darling rurouni feel worthless and unable to follow through with his vows to protect those from death and sorrow, even if they were either evil or an adversary.

"Kenshin, if there's anything that your not, one of them is being worthless which I know your not!" Kaoru defended her redhead, she then continued to explain, "You work your but off day in and day out, by either doing chores, making us happy, or fighting. And if anyone says otherwise, I'll knock their teeth out!"

Kenshin couldn't help but chuckle at that statement, but it didn't help entirely.

"And what did you mean by alike?" Kaoru asked suspiciously.

"I meant that Cobra and I are so different and yet, so alike went it comes to death." He said emotionlessly. "He has been living in world of violence and death since he was 8 years old, just like me." He finished, unable to continue.

Kaoru lowered her head wrapped her arms around her wanderer and said, "We'll finish this later."

"Thank you... Kaoru." Unaware of dropping the honorific.

Hours later...

The sun was starting to set on Japan's western sky, the events of the day still lingered even after dying down. Now the Kenshingumi had one major thing on their minds... dinner.

Kenshin sat on the far left end of the king sized bed as Kaoru stood by the other end of the bed, facing the wall as she nervously unpacked her belongings and he thought to himself, _'Okay, I guess sharing a western bed with Miss Kaoru for a few nights isn't so bad,'_ He looked towards the 17-year-old who had her back to him, _'though I think Miss Kaoru might still be uneasy.'_ He sweat dropped.

_'I can't believe I'm this nervous about sleeping with Kenshin. Maybe he'll hold my hand this time and maybe he'll let me snuggle up to and maybe even... KAORU KAMIYA YOU PERVERT! I'm just sharing a bed with the man of my dreams who recently started courting me.' _She mentally berated herself.

_'And who happens to be a great kisser.' _She thought dreamingly.

Just then, a familiar voice from outside of the bedroom caught everyone's attention, "Master Himura?! Master Kenshin is everyone in these quarters decent?"

"Hello er... Ekkota good demon king.

"Please address me as Ebenezer my scarred friend."

"My apologies for Ebenezer Forrgon is forever your true name."

"As Kenshin Himura is yours Battousai. Now then, I hope everything is going..." He paused for a bit thinking for the right word to use, "sufficient."

"Well actually, Sir Forrgon. Some of us are a little uncomfortable of sharing a room, despite having these large western style beds, which a few of us seem uncomfortable of sharing. I can't think of any other way of describing this situation regarding... sleeping arrangements."

"I understand Master Kenshin, and I greatly apologize to you and your companions. I have been caught up in the reconstruction plans of this building, focusing on the economics office for the embassy, and I should've prioritized sleeping arrangements."

"No Mr. Ebenezer you're a busy man er... Demon-"

Ebenezer laughed warmly, "Hahahahah! No no you may call me a busy man. For that is my gender."

"That it is." Kenshin smiled.

"Hey Himura who is this guy?" Misao asked.

"I am Ebenezer Snakeskin Forrgon. Who might you be young lady?"

"I'm Misao Makimachi. The beautiful member of the Owniwaban group. I may or may not have made half of the sleeping arrangements to where Himura and Kaoru will share a bed in hopes to jump start the relationship." She said with a mischievous smile forming on her face.

Kenshin and Kaoru blushed intensely upon hearing that embarrassing statement.

"Oooh. It seems that your friendship with young mistress Kamiya is stronger than what I believed it to be Master Himura. I sensed strong emotions from you being repressed when I asked you that particular question from earlier."

"Yeah everyone thinks that. So you're the King of the Demons huh?" Misao asked.

"I am."

"Let me ask you something. Just how old are you mister?"

"I'm 85 why do you ask?"

"WHAAAT!? You're 85!?"

"Can't you hear what he said Weasel girl he's 85!" Sanosuke shouted as he stomped out of the room.

"But with a face and brightly colored hair like that you don't look a day over 40 or 30!"

"Hmhmhm," He chuckled, "do I appear to be that handsome young Madame Misao?"

"I'm not surprised. I'm assuming that for someone of a demonic species, age would be significantly slower."

"Your assumption is correct with astounding accuracy good sir. And who might you be?"

"Aoshi Shinomori." He bowed

"The lead defender of Edo Castle?"

"Correct. How did you know good king?"

"There are at least half a dozen former members of the Owniwaban group, serving as public officials and keeping many politicians... in line."

Aoshi nodded but decided to change the subject, "Your brother is an astounding fighter."

"Is he now? Are you not feeling a bit... skeptical about him Master Aoshi?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Skeptical is rather understatement for that creep." Misao waved her hand.

"He is not a creep Miss Misao, he is misunderstood." Ebenezer defended.

Aoshi placed his hand atop of Misao's slim shoudler, who looked up at him with wide innocent eyes. "As was I before Misao. And as the leader of the Oniwaban group you should not judge appearances." He emotionlessly lectured his protégée.

Ebenezer's eyes showed a bit of surprise. "Leader? Quite for her to hold the title of leadership Master Shinomori."

"Yes she is young and a bit inexperienced but," He paused as he petted her head, "I have faith in her."

Misao blushed at hearing the affectionate words that the man she loved dearly was saying.

Ebenezer smiled warmly at the scene. "Now then, Mr. Kenshin would you care to join me for a drink? So you can temporarily remove yourself from this... situation that I sense has some uneasiness." He gestured to the bed.

"I have to respectfully decline Sir Forrgon. I'd rather be sober enough for dinner."

"Wise choice Mr. Himura, wise choice. I shall take my leave, for I have some last-minute errands to see through." With that he left the group to take care of some things.

* * *

Now what do you think. Do you think I went too fast with the pairings. Was it not enough. My endings are usually not that great. I will add more to the last part of this later.

This is the chapter before the dinner chapter(s).

So looks like Sano and Megumi have been a couple in secret and Kenshin and Kaoru are getting there.

I will fill in the small holes later. Review please.


	13. Dinner

**Dinner Chapter, first part. Warning: Frequent alcohol and tobacco usage and sensitive questions being asked throughout this dinner segment. You'll know what's sensitive. And I like to give credit to a female family friend of mine who gave me an idea for the dinner chapter. Since their will be Japanese dishes as well as foreign ones, Sea food sauce will be present among the Japanese food. **

**Also there will be some surprises in these chapters. **

**Not 100 percent done but read and review and I will fix this chapter later.**

* * *

The three mysterious figures that spied on the group of warriors that fought and decimated some of their soliders, were walking down a wood and metal corridor, talking about todays events. The three of them were partially visible due to the limited light they were, revealing only their bodies below their upper abdomens.

The man in the middle, appeared to be wearing a green business suit.

"Well... what are your thoughts... General?" The figure on the right of the central individual asked.

The one called 'General' grinned from whatever he was planning. "Well now that I think about it Surgeon General, is that we should increase the size of our forces and modify our equipment. And we should study the others of both Battousai's group and our beautiful Cobreinian enemies. Battousai's friends seem rather impressive, but he and that police officer deserve much _greater_ attention_._"

"Same goes for that thug and gloomy looking warrior." Man number two inquired.

"However, they are not our top priority my friend but they will receive the same scrutiny as our great worthy adversaries for the upcoming struggle."

"Yes but Battousai seemed greatly bothered by the blood shed." Figure number two said with concern.

The General's grin pierced through the darkness. "Ah but the possibility of that changing is evident, and if that turns out to be the case Surgeon General, he will not only spill blood once again... but embrace it."

"I suppose that's true." He replied sounding reassured.

"Now on to the business of the resources for our struggle. What news of our forces Surgeon?"

The one called the 'Surgeon General' silhouetted form showed that he had a long, cone shaped beak coming from face that curved downwards at the tip.

The Surgeon General cackled softly at the question. "Well Sir, we have at least 100,000 soldiers ready, and another 256,000 from Africa, Europe, and Central Asia should arrive fully prepared by next week. And by the end of the month another 487,000 will arrive, but only partially prepared."

"Heheheheh, that is wonderful news! What about our navy?"

"We've successfully managed to double its size to 217 within the last year, and we should expect to be adding 50 within a few weeks. However only 13 of our current ships are steel plated, and only 80 of the wooden ships have engines." His voice was clearly dispirited.

"Don't fret S.G., we can still make do with what he have at our disposal. In fact we can improvise the bulk of our navy."

"Well..." The Surgeon smiled madly, "we maybe able to add another 50 ships within a few weeks armed with Gatling guns and the latest cannons from Germany. Is the Admiral okay with these numbers?"

On the other end of trio, was a silhouetted figure, as revealed by the ceiling lights, that was undoubtedly large and at least 11 feet tall. His skin color suggested that he maybe of African decent and wore leopard and zebra skinned trousers and boots made out of an alligator armor.

His response was brief and blunt, "Sufficient for now." He said in a deep voice.

"And I hope you will be satisfied later on when your new _toys_ arrive Admiral, because I think it will fascinate us of what they can do!" The General gleefully shouted

"Miss Kaoru are you finished in there?" Kenshin asked through the shoji while knocking on it.

"Five more minutes Kenshin!" Kaoru answered back.

"Oro? You said that five minutes ago, that you did!"

In truth, she's been saying that for twenty minutes.

"Are you dressed up yet?"

"Yes I am! I have been for at least five minutes!"

"Oro?!"

It was dinner time for the Kenshin Group and their new foreign friends. Everyone that already dressed up appropriately as best they could had already left for the dining room. Kaoru however, seemed to be taking her time. Kenshin wondered what to expect from this evening. Yahiko and Sanosuke would most likely stuff themselves and eating everything in five minutes. Kaoru's bad cooking would probably be mentioned. And Cobra... he didn't know what to expect from him. Didn't even know if he was going to be there.

"Okay I'm done!" Kaoru announced.

_'Finally.' _He thought as he sighed in relief.

The shoji opened up and out stepped Kaoru. "How do I look?"

Kenshin froze for a minute. Saying that Kaoru looked good was an understatement. Naturally she looked liked a goddess even at her worse. She was wearing one of the new kimonos that Kenshin bought for her a few days back. Kaoru's outfit was of a cyan blue color with white and pink butterflies imprinted on it, her obi was violet with yellow flower petals. And her hair, pulled back in her usual ponytail, had a yellow ribbon with a black dragon outlined in it.

Kenshin gave a genuine smile at her appearance. "Like an angel."

A visible blush appeared across Kaoru's face as she gave an embarrassed smile from the compliment. "Gee thanks Kenshin."

"But what were you doing in there for the past ten minutes?"

"Oh, I was fixing my hair."

"Oro?! For that long?"

"Oh Kenshin, do you not know anything about women?!"

"Uhh well yeah, I mean of course I do... well a little." He babbled aimlessly.

"I swear Kenshin, sometimes I think that your time as a wanderer turned your brains to mush or that you were just born an idiot." Kaoru shook he head before she grabbed Kenshin's hand and pulled him roughly as she lead him away from the room to the dining room.

Less than 10 minutes passed, and the couple approached their destination and heard the familiar voices of their friends making conversation. They walked down a wooden hallway and saw the door less opening of the dining room.

"A doctor Miss Takani!? I had no idea that women in your country could achieve such an education." Queen Helena said.

Megumi smiled at the Queen. "Well actually Mrs. Forrgon, it was my family that educated me. For I come from a family of doctors that spanned for many generations."

"Oh how very interesting. Even one's family ties can be beneficial to the common people." Helena nodded.

"Speaking of people," Saitou interjected, "the Battousai and his woman finally decided to join us."

"Hajime!" Tokio whispered loudly to her husband in a scolding way.

Kenshin masked his annoyance and replied sarcastically, "And a wonderful evening to you too Sait-"

"UNCLE KENNY!"

"Oro!?" Kenshin cried out as he was once again, bowled over by two little girls that loved him so much.

A fit of laughter erupted throughout the room at the sight of the greatest swordsman in Japan, being ambushed by two small children.

"Uncle Ken you promised that you wouldn't fight monsters and you promised that you would play with us!" Ayame pouted.

"Uncle Kenny you fought scary monsters and didn't play with us!" Suzume repeated.

"Oh I'm sorry you two, that I am. But I tell you what. Tomorrow I'll get up really early and we'll play for the entire morning."

"Really? You Promise?" They asked with hopeful eyes.

"Of course." He smiled at them.

"Can Uncle Nick play with us?" Ayame asked.

"Uncle Nick?" Kenshin asked standing up.

"She ask about me." A deep voice said.

A large, muscular man wearing a white buttoned up shirt and black trousers, stood in front of the fallen swordsman.

"Oh. Mr. Nikolai! It's nice to see you again, that it is." He said as he struggled to put up a smile, because a moment ago his eyes widened at the sight of the scar riddled face that the Russian demon possessed. He had really short brownish blonde hair, crooked lips, a disfigured nose, and deep brown eyes with golden and red rims around them.

"Da." He nodded as he picked up both of the girls off of the swordsman.

"Its about time you made it Kenshin, we were all waiting for you and the Missy to show up!" Sanosuke shouted

"Yeah," Yahiko agreed, "I thought I was gonna starve if you and... woah." The boy's eyes widened at the sight of his sensei.

"Whoa indeed." Megumi added, who wore a pink kimono with golden dragon twisting around her body.

"Damn Missy you look great tonight." Sanosuke complimented. The street fighter wore his usual attire only with a black shirt under his jacket.

Almost everyone gave their compliments to Kaoru who thanked them in return

"Mrs. Forrgon its nice to see you too, that it is."

The human queen "The feeling is mutual. Please set your sword with the other weapons."

The room that they were eating in was a large, ornate yellow room. They sat at a long, oval-shaped hickory table cover by a large white cloth, with appetizer plates scattered neatly on it. The appetizers consisted of rice, shrimp, noodles, and slices of watermelon. In the middle were a few pitchers of cold water, two jugs of sake and a few bottles of wine.

Kenshin reached the weapon's table, which sat next to a minibar, it had Saitou's katana, Misao's kunais, Yusuf's swords, Yahiko's bokken, and couple of revolvers that he didn't know who owned them, but shrugged it off.

Kenshin returned back to the table and pulled out Kaoru's chair for her, who thanked him in return and pushed her chair closer to the table. And as Kenshin was just about to sit down in his seat next to Kaoru's, he froze half way and looked up and noticed for the first time since entering the room, was Lt. Cobra sitting right across from Kenshin. And he just realized that the table was only three feet wide, not enough distance for him.

Kaoru noticed the snake demon after Kenshin did and put on a fake smile and said, "Lt. Cobra you look nice this evening."

The demon just chuckled at the girl's mask and said, "What a fake show your puttin' up there little girl."

Everyone seemed to sit next to each other in pairs be in Kenshin and Kaoru sat next to each other in the middle, across from Queen Helena and Cobra. However there was an empty seat between the warm smiling soft mannered speaking human female, and the stone silent demon snake. Frederick, who sat a couple of seats away from Kaoru on her right, said it was Ebenezer's. At first, most of everyone wondered where there host was. Helena's response was, "Why don't we ask my brother-in-law."

Everyone turned to the lieutenant who didn't speak up right away. Instead he picked the glass of wine and took a couple of sips of the red liquid and said, "Bureaucrats." He set the glass down and pulled out a cigar from his jacket and put it to his lips.

Helena sighed and took the conversation to a new subject.

Sitting to Kenshin's left was the Fujita/Saitou family. Tokio was sitting next to Kaoru as she lecturing her youngest son, Tsutomo, who sat on her lap about how to use a fork. Saitou himself sat next to his wife, followed by Eiji and Akiko. Next to the wolf family sat Frederick, Nikolai, Megumi, Sano who was stuffing himself, Misao, who was wearing her ninja outfit, and Yusuf who sat a few feet away from Helena and the female ninja.

Just then cooks started handing out menus and trays of sushi and potatoes in front of the guests.

"I apologize to keep you waiting everyone, I had an issue with some bureaucrats." Ebenezer Forrgon said as walked past the swinging, double wide doors while carrying a plate of green food before setting it down in front of Cobra. He leaned over and shared a few kisses with his wife Helena, before sitting down to eat his shrimp and rice.

"What's this? Two meals in one week? The second one being my favorite dish."

"That is right brother."

"What's that vomit?" Yahiko asked with disgust.

"Its spinach, made in the Greek way. Its been my favorite meal for 63 years."

Tae came in next placed plates of sushi in front of Yahiko and Tsubame, who sat next to Kaoru and Kenshin, before sitting down next to Cobra with a smile on her face.

"So Sir- I mean Lt. Cobra? Do you have a happy marriage?" Tae asked in her Kansei dialect. (A/N: Region in Japan. Accent sounds like from the American South.)

Cobra stopped eating his spinach and looked up. "Happy what?!"

"Marriage Lt. Cobra." Kenshin said.

"I've never been married."

"Engaged?"

"Nope."

"Your 78 and single?" Megumi asked in disbelief.

"I can live for a few hundred years Miss Fox. And marriage is for two individuals that are in love. I never even fell in love before."

"Und let's hope you never do." Frederick said.

Misao raised an eye brow at the wolf demon, as did everyone else.

"Hey aren't you being a little cold-hearted ya knucklehead?!"

"I- nein- none of us are ready for ze end of the vorld."

"What?" Someone in the group asked.

"I'm too ruthless and cold-hearted to fall in love."

"Speaking of love, why not experience love through the taste of good food?" A French accented voice suggested.

A man wearing a beige, western suit and a red tie came from the kitchen. He wore white gloves, and his short, black shiny hair was combed neatly to the side, and had a pencil thin, curved mustache.

"Everyone this our good friend and retainer Jacques Bonnefoy from France." Ebenezer introduced.

Just then, out of nowhere, Kenshin abruptly stood up and started talking to the Frenchman, "Excusez-moi monsieur Jacques, mais vous n'auriez pas d'avoir certains de vos délicieux croissants feriez-vous?" _(Excuse me mister Jacques, but you wouldn't happen to have some of your delicious croissants would you?)_

* * *

This chapter is 97 percent done. There are some holes that I will fill in. Yes Kenshin speaks French. And since we don't really know that much about his time in Kyoto, except for killing the enemy, and a wanderer I took advantage of it. Don't criticize me for it.


End file.
